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Tamazula fire, April 2021 Tamazula

Out · last detection 25 Apr 2021, 20:28 UTC

The fire started on 13 April 2021 in Tamazula, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,863 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 67th largest in Durango since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 86 in Mexico in 2021, of 295.

Burnt area
3,863ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
13 Apr 2021 – 25 Apr 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
13 Apr
2021
Heat detections
198
in a single hotspot: 141 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
725MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Apr 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Apr25 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

131516171819202122232425

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
44km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 52 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 28 Apr.

This area had burned before

61% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,857 ha in 2017, 2 ha in 2018, 1,206 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,350 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Tamazula where it started
    3,877 ha reached on 9 Apr
    0.7 %

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.

Official record

According to CONAFOR, this fire started on 16 April 2021 and burned 2,253 ha (the satellite measured 3,863 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

CONAFOR (Comisión Nacional Forestal), estadística de incendios forestales en datos.gob.mx (CC BY 4.0). This is the agency’s consolidated statistic: it measures the area in its own way, which is why it can differ from the satellite.

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)
9 Apr 29.1 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Apr 28.2 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Apr 29.2 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Apr 29.7 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Apr 29.6 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Apr 30.6 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Apr 30.2 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Apr 28.9 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Apr 29.3 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Apr 27.4 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Apr 27.1 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Apr 28.1 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Apr 29.5 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Apr 28.7 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Apr 27.9 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Apr 30.6 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Apr 28.7 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Apr after 28.0 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Apr after 26.7 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Apr after 23.9 °C 47 % 40 km/h 1.8 mm Low 10

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Apr 2021
After · 2 May 2021

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 · 198Every 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 13 April 2021 and 25 April 2021: 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 3,863 hectares (38.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tamazula (3,877 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.

Report an error
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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.