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Tamazula fire, 11 May 2017 Tamazula

Out · last detection 23 May 2017, 19:57 UTC

The fire started on 11 May 2017 in Tamazula, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,955 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 167th largest in Durango since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 243 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

Burnt area
1,955ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
11 May 2017 – 23 May 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
11 May
2017
Heat detections
107
in a single hotspot: 36 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
446MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 May 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 May23 May

How it evolved, day by day

11121314151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

25°high
53km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 136 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Tamazula where it started
    1,956 ha reached on 10 May
    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.

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)
11 May 25.3 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 May 24.3 °C 18 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 May 23.5 °C 26 % 52 km/h 0.3 mm High 32
14 May 22.9 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 May 22.0 °C 30 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 May 21.5 °C 27 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 May 23.2 °C 21 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 May 22.4 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
19 May 22.7 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
20 May 24.2 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 May 24.4 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 May 25.2 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 May 24.9 °C 30 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 May after 24.3 °C 36 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 May after 24.2 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 May after 26.0 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
27 May after 27.0 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 May after 25.5 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
29 May after 24.9 °C 28 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
30 May after 23.5 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
31 May after 24.1 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.9 mm High 22
1 Jun after 24.7 °C 23 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
2 Jun after 24.8 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 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 · 107Every 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 11 May 2017 and 23 May 2017: 13 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 1,955 hectares (19.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tamazula (1,956 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 25.3 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 53 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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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.