Skip to content
worldfires
MX · Mexico · →

Quechultenango fire, March 2019 Quechultenango, Acatepec

Out · last detection 13 Mar 2019, 07:48 UTC

The fire started on 7 March 2019 in Quechultenango, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,250 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 351th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 204 in Mexico in 2019, of 364.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,250ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
7 Mar 2019 – 13 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
7 Mar
2019
Heat detections
80
in a single hotspot: 14 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
263MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Mar 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Mar13 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

78910111213

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
50km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 52 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Quechultenango where it started
    1,750 ha reached on 7 Mar
    2.1 %
  2. Acatepec
    511 ha reached on 7 Mar
    0.8 %

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)
7 Mar 31.6 °C 36 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Mar 32.4 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
9 Mar 31.3 °C 38 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
10 Mar 30.2 °C 39 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Mar 32.1 °C 30 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Mar 32.2 °C 30 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Mar 30.9 °C 34 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Mar after 31.3 °C 32 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Mar after 30.8 °C 39 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Mar after 31.4 °C 40 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Mar after 30.5 °C 41 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
18 Mar after 31.3 °C 39 % 41 km/h 0.7 mm High 24
19 Mar after 30.2 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
20 Mar after 30.4 °C 34 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 Mar after 30.2 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
22 Mar after 31.4 °C 32 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Mar after 31.1 °C 32 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Mar after 33.2 °C 30 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Mar after 34.0 °C 29 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Feb 2019
After · 20 Mar 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 · 80Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Quechultenango fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 March 2019 and 13 March 2019: 7 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 2,250 hectares (22.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Quechultenango (1,750 ha, 2.1 %); Acatepec (511 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.4 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.