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Tamazula fire, 8 May 2017 Tamazula

Out · last detection 24 May 2017, 08:24 UTC

The fire started on 8 May 2017 in Tamazula, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 16 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 197 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

The power measured by the satellite is low (12.7 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
16days
8 May 2017 – 23 May 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
8 May
2017
Heat detections
148
in a single hotspot: 13 MW
Danger at start
38
High · FWI index
Energy released
504MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 May 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 May23 May

How it evolved, day by day

81011121314151617182021222324

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
50km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Tamazula where it started
    2,282 ha reached on 8 May
    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)
8 May 26.4 °C 29 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 May 26.4 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.5 mm High 34
10 May 28.4 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 May 31.8 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 May 30.2 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 May 30.2 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 May 28.9 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 May 27.0 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 May 26.3 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 May 28.3 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 May 27.7 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 May 27.9 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 May 29.7 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 May 29.5 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 May 30.0 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 May 30.1 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 May after 29.9 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 May after 29.5 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 May after 31.3 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 May after 32.4 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 May after 30.4 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 May after 30.2 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 May after 29.7 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
31 May after 29.8 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
1 Jun after 30.2 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Jun after 30.6 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Jun after 29.9 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 May 2017
After · 30 May 2017

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 · 148Every 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 8 May 2017 and 23 May 2017: 16 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 (2,282 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 50 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.

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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.