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Othón P. Blanco fire, 18 March 2017 Othón P. Blanco, Bacalar

Out · last detection 30 Mar 2017, 18:27 UTC

The fire started on 18 March 2017 in Othón P. Blanco, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,727 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 15th largest in Quintana Roo since 2016 (of 40 with a page). Number 151 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

Burnt area
2,727ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
18 Mar 2017 – 29 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
18 Mar
2017
Heat detections
178
in a single hotspot: 762 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Mar 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Mar29 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

181920212223242527282930

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
48km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 73 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Othón P. Blanco where it started
    1,783 ha reached on 18 Mar
    0.2 %
  2. Bacalar 12,527 inhabitants
    962 ha reached on 20 Mar
    0.2 %

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)
18 Mar 33.6 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Mar 33.0 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Mar 33.9 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Mar 34.2 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 Mar 32.8 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Mar 33.4 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Mar 32.9 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Mar 34.3 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Mar 33.2 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Mar 34.1 °C 38 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Mar 35.2 °C 35 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Mar 34.9 °C 41 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Mar after 33.2 °C 48 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
31 Mar after 36.2 °C 42 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
1 Apr after 36.9 °C 41 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Apr after 36.6 °C 44 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Apr after 37.3 °C 42 % 49 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
4 Apr after 35.5 °C 46 % 43 km/h 0.4 mm High 33
5 Apr after 36.6 °C 46 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Apr after 36.4 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Apr after 35.0 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Apr after 33.2 °C 50 % 34 km/h 0.9 mm High 22
9 Apr after 34.1 °C 50 % 42 km/h 0.6 mm High 25
10 Apr after 34.6 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm High 28
11 Apr after 34.6 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.7 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Mar 2017
After · 5 Apr 2017

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 · 178Every 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 Othón P. Blanco fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 March 2017 and 29 March 2017: 12 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 2,727 hectares (27.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Othón P. Blanco (1,783 ha, 0.2 %); Bacalar (962 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class Very 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.

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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.