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Tamazula fire, 19 May 2018 San Ignacio, Tamazula, Cosalá

Out · last detection 7 Jun 2018, 19:32 UTC

The fire started on 19 May 2018 in Tamazula, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,732 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Durango since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 7 in Mexico in 2018, of 235.

Burnt area
15,732ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
20days
19 May 2018 – 7 Jun 2018
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
19 May
2018
Heat detections
1,012
in a single hotspot: 58 MW
Danger at start
23
High · FWI index
Energy released
5.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Jun 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 May7 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

192021222324252627282930311234567

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
47km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 24.1 mm on 12 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. San Ignacio
    9,038 ha reached on 23 May
    1.8 %
  2. Tamazula where it started
    6,596 ha reached on 19 May
    1.1 %
  3. Cosalá
    157 ha reached on 5 Jun
    0.1 %

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)
19 May 27.2 °C 20 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
20 May 27.4 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
21 May 27.0 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
22 May 26.3 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 May 26.8 °C 34 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
24 May 29.1 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
25 May 28.6 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
26 May 28.9 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.3 mm High 23
27 May 28.6 °C 40 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
28 May 27.8 °C 48 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
29 May 29.0 °C 44 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
30 May 30.5 °C 34 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
31 May 29.8 °C 41 % 43 km/h 0.5 mm High 24
1 Jun 29.5 °C 42 % 43 km/h 0.5 mm High 24
2 Jun 29.2 °C 46 % 41 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 12
3 Jun 28.2 °C 49 % 47 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 16
4 Jun 26.3 °C 53 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 16
5 Jun 27.6 °C 49 % 40 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 16
6 Jun 27.3 °C 48 % 37 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 14
7 Jun 27.2 °C 47 % 38 km/h 1.9 mm Low 8
8 Jun after 26.3 °C 53 % 36 km/h 11.9 mm Very low 1
9 Jun after 24.2 °C 65 % 37 km/h 12.8 mm Very low 0
10 Jun after 23.9 °C 65 % 43 km/h 12.4 mm Very low 0
11 Jun after 26.5 °C 49 % 40 km/h 15.0 mm Very low 0
12 Jun after 24.6 °C 61 % 34 km/h 24.1 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 May 2018
After · 14 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 · 1,012Every 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 19 May 2018 and 7 June 2018: 20 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 15,732 hectares (157.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: San Ignacio (9,038 ha, 1.8 %); Tamazula (6,596 ha, 1.1 %); Cosalá (157 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.5 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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.