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Tamazula fire, 20 May 2018 Tamazula, Cosalá

Out · last detection 31 May 2018, 20:03 UTC

The fire started on 20 May 2018 in Tamazula, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,561 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 75th largest in Durango since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 58 in Mexico in 2018, of 235.

The power measured by the satellite is low (23.4 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
3,561ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
20 May 2018 – 30 May 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
20 May
2018
Heat detections
231
in a single hotspot: 23 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 May 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 May30 May

How it evolved, day by day

202122232425262728293031

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
44km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 9 Jun.

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
    2,825 ha reached on 13 May
    0.5 %
  2. Cosalá
    749 ha reached on 19 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)
13 May 33.2 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 May 34.7 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 May 34.7 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 May 33.8 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 May 34.4 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 May 34.3 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 May 34.0 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 May 34.4 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 May 33.5 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 May 32.3 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 May 33.3 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 May 35.9 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 May 35.3 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 May 35.3 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 May 35.2 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 May 33.7 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 May 34.3 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 May 35.4 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 May after 35.5 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Jun after 34.9 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Jun after 36.0 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Jun after 35.0 °C 41 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Jun after 33.0 °C 42 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm High 31
5 Jun after 34.8 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.5 mm High 32
6 Jun after 34.6 °C 37 % 39 km/h 0.7 mm High 29
7 Jun after 34.9 °C 37 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
8 Jun after 34.1 °C 40 % 33 km/h 0.5 mm High 28
9 Jun after 32.4 °C 43 % 35 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 May 2018
After · 6 Jun 2018

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 · 231Every 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 20 May 2018 and 30 May 2018: 11 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 3,561 hectares (35.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tamazula (2,825 ha, 0.5 %); Cosalá (749 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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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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.