San Carlos Yautepec fire, April 2017
San Carlos Yautepec
Out · last detection 4 May 2017, 08:01 UTC
The fire started on 24 April 2017 in San Carlos Yautepec, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,345 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 86th largest in Oaxaca since 2016 (of 185 with a page). Number 187 in Mexico in 2017, of 374.
The power measured by the satellite is low (27.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Burned area
with caveats
2,345ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
This page2,345CONAFOR877
Source
GWIS (Copernicus)
Date
24 Apr 2017 – 4 May 2017
+− cross-check
CONAFOR: 877 ha (matched records: 1). Difference between the page and the official record: +167.4%. Matched on 8 November 2026. The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
Duration by satellite
satellite only
11days
24 Apr 2017 to 4 May 2017: first and last day with fire on the page.
Source
GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
last detection: 4 May 2017, 08:01 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only
24 Apr 2017
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
Source
GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
24 Apr 2017
+− cross-check
The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
Hotspots
satellite only
129
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 28 MW.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
Date
24 Apr 2017 – 4 May 2017
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only
228MW
Total radiative power on 28 April 2017; hotspots that day: 20.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
Date
28 Apr 2017
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model
0.4FWI · very low
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 0.
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings ›
Weather during the fire
model
28.3°C · 52% RH
High of 28.3 °C and minimum humidity of 52% on 1 May 2017; gusts of 49 km/h on 26 April 2017.
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
ⓘThis page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
· reconstructedofficial
Matched with the official CONAFOR record
Nearby records with very different figures: 877 ha (records: 1).
A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2015
Built-up area< 0.1ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
According to CONAFOR, this fire started on 25 April 2017 and burned 877 ha (the satellite measured 2,345 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
San Carlos YautepecSan Miguel Chongos25 April 2017877 ha· extinguished on 4 May 2017· cause: negligence
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)
24 Apr
25.7 °C
58 %
30 km/h
10.0 mm
Very low 0
25 Apr
26.1 °C
55 %
43 km/h
0.3 mm
Very low 1
26 Apr
26.4 °C
56 %
49 km/h
0.0 mm
Very low 5
27 Apr
26.7 °C
53 %
39 km/h
0.0 mm
Low 8
28 Apr
27.1 °C
47 %
44 km/h
0.0 mm
Low 10
29 Apr
26.9 °C
35 %
47 km/h
0.0 mm
Moderate 15
30 Apr
27.3 °C
36 %
38 km/h
0.0 mm
Moderate 16
1 May
28.3 °C
52 %
36 km/h
0.3 mm
Moderate 14
2 May
27.6 °C
58 %
33 km/h
0.5 mm
Moderate 14
3 May
27.0 °C
52 %
38 km/h
0.6 mm
Moderate 15
4 May
26.7 °C
62 %
38 km/h
7.2 mm
Low 10
5 May after
24.9 °C
61 %
36 km/h
9.7 mm
Very low 0
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 0.4, a minimum humidity of 58% and rain the day before. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 10.
FWI at the start0.4
Minimum humidity58 %
Days without rain0
this firechosen twinsrest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · San Carlos Yautepec fire, April 2017
2,345 ha11 daysFWI 0.4Min. humidity 58 %
San Miguel Chimalapa fire, April 2018
1,626 ha4 daysFWI 2.1Min. humidity 57 %159 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.3 mm on 25 Apr.
Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 10. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
9.7 mmfirst rain
5 Maythe day after it ended
49km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 4 May, and on 5 May 9.7 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 24 April 2017 to 4 May 2017 (11 days). The perimeter dates it from 27 April 2017 to 4 May 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,345 hectares (23.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered San Carlos Yautepec (2,354 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.3 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, class Moderate.
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.
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 errorHow we know this›
Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 27 April 2017 to 4 May 2017. 129 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with CONAFOR: 877 official ha against 2,345 ha of perimeter; similar, but with reservations.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.