How long did the Tamazula fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 17 May 2017 to 12 June 2017 (27 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 May 2017 to 8 June 2017.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,253 hectares (52.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tamazula (5,220 ha, 0.9 %); Canelas (55 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 29.2 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class 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.

MX · Mexico · 2017-05-17 → 2017-06-12

Tamazula fire, 17 May 2017 Tamazula, Canelas

Out · last detection 12 Jun 2017, 20:22 UTC

The fire started on 17 May 2017 in Tamazula, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,253 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 34th largest in Durango since 2016 (of 239 with a page). Number 56 in Mexico in 2017, of 374.

The power measured by the satellite is low (26.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Tamazula · 2018 Tamazula · 2022 Cosalá · 2018 Tamazula · 2021

Burnt area: 5,253ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 27days; 17 May 2017 – 12 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 17 May; 2017
Heat detections: 308; in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start: 30; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 46MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 May12 Jun

Play back 12 Jun 2017

How it evolved, day by day

17 May 21 May 25 May 29 May 30 May 2 Jun 8 Jun

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

The weather it burned in

29°high

48km/h · peak gust

26%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 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.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 3.3% of the area of London (53 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

Tamazula where it started

5,220 ha reached on 17 May

0.9 %
Canelas

55 ha reached on 29 May

0.1 %

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 area0.72 ha

Residents≈ 80

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.72 hectares of built-up land and about 80 residents (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.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
17 May	24.8 °C	29 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
18 May	24.7 °C	27 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
19 May	24.3 °C	29 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
20 May	26.3 °C	26 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
21 May	26.0 °C	28 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
22 May	26.6 °C	29 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
23 May	26.6 °C	35 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
24 May	26.8 °C	34 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
25 May	26.3 °C	39 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
26 May	28.1 °C	33 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
27 May	29.2 °C	32 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
28 May	27.4 °C	31 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
29 May	26.4 °C	34 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
30 May	25.9 °C	26 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
31 May	26.2 °C	37 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
1 Jun	26.4 °C	29 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
2 Jun	26.7 °C	27 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
3 Jun	26.4 °C	32 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
4 Jun	26.0 °C	35 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
5 Jun	27.2 °C	38 %	41 km/h	0.6 mm	High 25
6 Jun	27.0 °C	42 %	40 km/h	1.0 mm	Moderate 18
7 Jun	25.1 °C	45 %	38 km/h	3.3 mm	Low 6
8 Jun	27.0 °C	41 %	40 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 15
9 Jun	26.6 °C	42 %	40 km/h	0.5 mm	Moderate 20
10 Jun	24.7 °C	57 %	35 km/h	3.2 mm	Very low 5
11 Jun	23.6 °C	62 %	35 km/h	1.3 mm	Very low 5
12 Jun	25.1 °C	55 %	35 km/h	0.5 mm	Low 10
13 Jun after	27.3 °C	49 %	40 km/h	0.7 mm	Moderate 14
14 Jun after	25.3 °C	55 %	38 km/h	0.7 mm	Moderate 13
15 Jun after	25.2 °C	54 %	39 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 15
16 Jun after	25.7 °C	52 %	40 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 16
17 Jun after	28.2 °C	46 %	34 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 16
18 Jun after	27.1 °C	49 %	39 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 18
19 Jun after	27.1 °C	46 %	39 km/h	0.5 mm	Moderate 19
20 Jun after	26.6 °C	44 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 20
21 Jun after	26.2 °C	40 %	45 km/h	0.2 mm	High 23
22 Jun after	25.4 °C	49 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 10 May 2017

After · 19 Jun 2017

Before After

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 · 308Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mexico ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Tamazula fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 17 May 2017 to 12 June 2017 (27 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 May 2017 to 8 June 2017.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,253 hectares (52.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tamazula (5,220 ha, 0.9 %); Canelas (55 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 29.2 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

CONAFOR · Comisión Nacional Forestal ↗
CENAPRED ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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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What do you think is wrong?

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What really happened?

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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.

How we know this

Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 May 2017 to 8 June 2017. 308 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
We have not matched this page with any official record.
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.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.

Where it burned