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Tamazula fire, 28 May 2017 Tamazula, Otáez, Santiago Papasquiaro

Out · last detection 6 Jun 2017, 09:21 UTC

The fire started on 28 May 2017 in Tamazula, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,908 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 62th largest in Durango since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 102 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

Burnt area
3,908ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
28 May 2017 – 6 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
28 May
2017
Heat detections
238
in a single hotspot: 43 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
906MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Jun 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 May6 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

28293031123456

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

The weather it burned in

26°high
57km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 27 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 15 Jun.

This area had burned before

18% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 692 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Tamazula where it started
    3,776 ha reached on 21 May
    0.6 %
  2. Otáez
    93 ha reached on 2 Jun
    0.0 %
  3. Santiago Papasquiaro
    48 ha reached on 23 May
    0.0 %

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)
21 May 23.1 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 May 24.0 °C 20 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 May 24.2 °C 25 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 May 23.7 °C 32 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 May 23.7 °C 33 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
26 May 25.0 °C 24 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 May 26.3 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 May 25.3 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
29 May 24.3 °C 26 % 49 km/h 0.3 mm High 32
30 May 22.7 °C 19 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 May 23.2 °C 21 % 51 km/h 0.4 mm High 33
1 Jun 23.3 °C 20 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Jun 23.4 °C 19 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Jun 23.8 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Jun 23.9 °C 26 % 52 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
5 Jun 24.0 °C 31 % 43 km/h 2.7 mm Low 8
6 Jun 24.8 °C 36 % 40 km/h 2.9 mm Low 6
7 Jun after 22.1 °C 38 % 40 km/h 2.4 mm Very low 4
8 Jun after 23.8 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 14
9 Jun after 23.0 °C 36 % 45 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 15
10 Jun after 23.1 °C 50 % 36 km/h 4.1 mm Very low 3
11 Jun after 19.5 °C 61 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Very low 5
12 Jun after 22.2 °C 54 % 40 km/h 1.2 mm Very low 5
13 Jun after 25.2 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 13
14 Jun after 24.2 °C 40 % 46 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 14
15 Jun after 24.5 °C 41 % 48 km/h 1.3 mm Low 10

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 May 2017
After · 13 Jun 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 · 238Every 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 28 May 2017 and 6 June 2017: 10 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 3,908 hectares (39.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tamazula (3,776 ha, 0.6 %); Otáez (93 ha, 0.0 %); Santiago Papasquiaro (48 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.3 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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

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.