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Quitupan fire, April 2023 Quitupan, Cotija

Out · last detection 3 May 2023, 08:40 UTC

The fire started on 22 April 2023 in Quitupan, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,401 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 71th largest in Jalisco since 2016 (of 283 with a page). Number 87 in Mexico in 2023, of 286.

Burnt area
3,401ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
22 Apr 2023 – 3 May 2023
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
22 Apr
2023
Heat detections
170
in a single hotspot: 132 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 May 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Apr3 May

How it evolved, day by day

222324252627282930123

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
52km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.2 mm on 7 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. Quitupan where it started
    2,456 ha reached on 20 Apr
    3.6 %
  2. Cotija
    963 ha reached on 23 Apr
    1.9 %

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.

Official record

According to CONAFOR, 3 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 1,697 ha (the satellite measured 3,401 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

CONAFOR (Comisión Nacional Forestal), estadística de incendios forestales en datos.gob.mx (CC BY 4.0). This is the agency’s consolidated statistic: it measures the area in its own way, which is why it can differ from the satellite.

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)
20 Apr 28.8 °C 26 % 44 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 21
21 Apr 31.4 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Apr 28.7 °C 26 % 46 km/h 1.5 mm High 23
23 Apr 27.1 °C 33 % 49 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
24 Apr 28.8 °C 24 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Apr 29.0 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Apr 29.3 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Apr 28.3 °C 22 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Apr 29.0 °C 18 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Apr 28.8 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Apr 27.5 °C 23 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 May 27.2 °C 20 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 May 28.1 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 May 29.4 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 May after 29.3 °C 19 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 May after 29.6 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 40
6 May after 32.6 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.8 mm High 38
7 May after 31.1 °C 26 % 46 km/h 2.2 mm Moderate 20

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Apr 2023
After · 10 May 2023

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

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 1 May 2023 the air beside the fire reached 48 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 31: 2.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak48 µg/m³
Days over the guideline12 days
PM1069 µg/m³
Optical depth1.00
2021222324252627282930123456
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 170Every 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 Quitupan fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 April 2023 and 3 May 2023: 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 3,401 hectares (34.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Quitupan (2,456 ha, 3.6 %); Cotija (963 ha, 1.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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
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.