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Quechultenango fire, May 2019 Quechultenango, Mochitlán

Out · last detection 15 May 2019, 19:17 UTC

The fire started on 6 May 2019 in Quechultenango, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,324 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 203th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 119 in Mexico in 2019, of 364.

Burnt area
3,324ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
6 May 2019 – 15 May 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
6 May
2019
Heat detections
123
in a single hotspot: 52 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
901MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 May 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 May15 May

How it evolved, day by day

6789101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
52km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 19 May.

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
    3,137 ha reached on 6 May
    3.7 %
  2. Mochitlán
    204 ha reached on 14 May
    0.4 %

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)
6 May 32.0 °C 33 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 May 33.0 °C 28 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 May 32.6 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 May 30.8 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 May 30.7 °C 32 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
11 May 30.0 °C 34 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 May 30.1 °C 35 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 May 30.4 °C 33 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 May 31.2 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 May 32.2 °C 23 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 May after 31.1 °C 37 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 May after 30.6 °C 42 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 May after 33.0 °C 45 % 42 km/h 0.7 mm High 24
19 May after 31.7 °C 40 % 42 km/h 1.0 mm High 24

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Apr 2019
After · 22 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 · 123Every 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 Quechultenango fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 May 2019 and 15 May 2019: 10 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 3,324 hectares (33.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Quechultenango (3,137 ha, 3.7 %); Mochitlán (204 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.

Report an error
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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.