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Tala fire, April 2018 Tala, Zapopan

Out · last detection 13 Apr 2018, 20:02 UTC

The fire started on 10 April 2018 in Tala, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,322 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 47th largest in Jalisco since 2016 (of 283 with a page). Number 43 in Mexico in 2018, of 235.

Burnt area
4,322ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
10 Apr 2018 – 12 Apr 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
10 Apr
2018
Heat detections
220
in a single hotspot: 138 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Apr 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Apr12 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

10111213

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
48km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 57 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. Tala where it started
    3,959 ha reached on 10 Apr
    8.7 %
  2. Zapopan 1,476,491 inhabitants
    384 ha reached on 11 Apr
    0.3 %

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, this fire started on 10 April 2018 and burned 2,692 ha (the satellite measured 4,322 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)
10 Apr 29.7 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Apr 27.9 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 41
12 Apr 27.0 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Apr after 27.9 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Apr after 26.6 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Apr after 28.7 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Apr after 27.9 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Apr after 27.7 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Apr after 29.2 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Apr after 31.6 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Apr after 29.3 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Apr after 30.0 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Apr after 30.4 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Apr after 31.4 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Apr after 30.2 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Apr 2018
After · 19 Apr 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 · 220Every 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 Tala fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 April 2018 and 12 April 2018: 3 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 4,322 hectares (43.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tala (3,959 ha, 8.7 %); Zapopan (384 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.7 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.