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Tamazula fire, April 2016 Tamazula

Out · last detection 6 May 2016, 08:06 UTC

The fire started on 22 April 2016 in Tamazula, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,275 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 133th largest in Durango since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 98 in Mexico in 2016, of 208.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,275ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
22 Apr 2016 – 6 May 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
22 Apr
2016
Heat detections
100
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
316MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 May 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Apr6 May

How it evolved, day by day

2223242526272830123456

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
48km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.7 mm on 8 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. Tamazula where it started
    2,289 ha reached on 22 Apr
    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)
22 Apr 29.7 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm High 31
23 Apr 28.9 °C 28 % 46 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 18
24 Apr 29.1 °C 25 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 Apr 28.9 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Apr 27.5 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Apr 30.2 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Apr 27.8 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Apr 25.8 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Apr 28.1 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 May 28.2 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 May 31.9 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 May 32.4 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
4 May 32.6 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
5 May 31.3 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 May 31.9 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 May after 30.7 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 May after 23.6 °C 54 % 37 km/h 9.7 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Apr 2016
After · 13 May 2016

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 · 100Every 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 Tamazula fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 April 2016 and 6 May 2016: 15 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 2,275 hectares (22.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tamazula (2,289 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.