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Tamazula fire, 15 May 2019 Tamazula

Out · last detection 27 May 2019, 20:35 UTC

The fire started on 15 May 2019 in Tamazula, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,105 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 146th largest in Durango since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 229 in Mexico in 2019, of 364.

Burnt area
2,105ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
15 May 2019 – 27 May 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
15 May
2019
Heat detections
116
in a single hotspot: 47 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
684MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 May 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 May27 May

How it evolved, day by day

15161718192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
45km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 3 Jun.

This area had burned before

9% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 15 ha in 2017, 168 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Tamazula where it started
    2,112 ha reached on 14 May
    0.4 %

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)
14 May 32.1 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 May 33.2 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 May 32.1 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 May 29.9 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 May 30.6 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 May 32.8 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 May 32.4 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 May 32.7 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 May 33.0 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 May 34.1 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 May 34.1 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 May 35.3 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 May 33.6 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 May 32.8 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 May after 31.3 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 May after 33.6 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
30 May after 33.2 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
31 May after 31.1 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Jun after 30.0 °C 45 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
2 Jun after 30.9 °C 42 % 39 km/h 0.3 mm High 28
3 Jun after 30.4 °C 47 % 39 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 17

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 May 2019
After · 3 Jun 2019

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 · 116Every 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 15 May 2019 and 27 May 2019: 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 2,105 hectares (21.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tamazula (2,112 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.3 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 45 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.