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Ometepec fire, May 2019 Ometepec

Out · last detection 9 May 2019, 19:29 UTC

The fire started on 1 May 2019 in Ometepec, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,728 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 520th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 302 in Mexico in 2019, of 364.

Burnt area
1,728ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
1 May 2019 – 9 May 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
1 May
2019
Heat detections
78
in a single hotspot: 252 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 May 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 May9 May

How it evolved, day by day

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Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high
42km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 947 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Ometepec where it started
    1,737 ha reached on 1 May
    2.9 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
1 May 35.9 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 May 35.3 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 May 34.9 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 May 34.2 °C 36 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 May 33.4 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 May 33.9 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 May 34.9 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 May 34.2 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 May 32.7 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 May after 32.3 °C 39 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 May after 31.6 °C 48 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 May after 32.2 °C 45 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 May after 32.1 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 May after 32.7 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 May after 33.5 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 May after 34.1 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 May after 34.0 °C 42 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 May after 34.4 °C 49 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
19 May after 32.8 °C 50 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 29

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 24 Apr 2019
After · 16 May 2019

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 78Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mexico ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ometepec fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 May 2019 and 9 May 2019: 9 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,728 hectares (17.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ometepec (1,737 ha, 2.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Mexico (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 911

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 911.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.