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Riva Palacio fire, 19 May 2018 Riva Palacio

Out · last detection 31 May 2018, 08:48 UTC

The fire started on 19 May 2018 in Riva Palacio, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,231 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 86th largest in Chihuahua since 2016 (of 235 with a page). Number 72 in Mexico in 2018, of 235.

Burnt area
3,231ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
19 May 2018 – 31 May 2018
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
19 May
2018
Heat detections
216
in a single hotspot: 140 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 May 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 May31 May

How it evolved, day by day

19202122232425262728293031

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
48km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 5 Jun.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Riva Palacio where it started
    3,238 ha reached on 19 May
    1.4 %

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)
19 May 27.3 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 May 28.3 °C 8 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 May 28.6 °C 13 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
22 May 28.4 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 May 29.5 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 May 30.2 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 May 31.3 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 May 32.7 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
27 May 31.8 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
28 May 31.9 °C 13 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
29 May 31.9 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
30 May 31.7 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
31 May 33.6 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Jun after 33.1 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Jun after 33.5 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm Extreme 52
3 Jun after 32.4 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.5 mm Extreme 56
4 Jun after 30.5 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 45
5 Jun after 30.5 °C 20 % 38 km/h 1.3 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 May 2018
After · 7 Jun 2018

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 · 216Every 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 Riva Palacio fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 May 2018 and 31 May 2018: 13 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 3,231 hectares (32.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Riva Palacio (3,238 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, class Extreme.
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.