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Tamazula fire, 18 May 2021 Tamazula

Out · last detection 31 May 2021, 20:53 UTC

The fire started on 18 May 2021 in Tamazula, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,489 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 33th largest in Durango since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 40 in Mexico in 2021, of 295.

The power measured by the satellite is low (24.4 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
5,489ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
18 May 2021 – 30 May 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
18 May
2021
Heat detections
302
in a single hotspot: 24 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 May 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 May30 May

How it evolved, day by day

1819202122232425262728293031

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
49km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 14 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
    5,496 ha reached on 18 May
    0.9 %

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 19 May 2021 and burned 3,837 ha (the satellite measured 5,489 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)
18 May 30.0 °C 26 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 May 28.2 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 May 29.4 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 May 28.1 °C 47 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
22 May 31.1 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm High 28
23 May 32.3 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 May 32.0 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 May 33.1 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 May 34.1 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 May 33.0 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 May 31.9 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 May 31.8 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 May 33.4 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
31 May after 33.1 °C 26 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Jun after 33.1 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Jun after 30.3 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.7 mm High 29
3 Jun after 32.2 °C 27 % 41 km/h 1.3 mm High 25
4 Jun after 32.1 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
5 Jun after 31.9 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
6 Jun after 32.4 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
7 Jun after 34.1 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
8 Jun after 34.3 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Jun after 32.9 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Jun after 31.6 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
11 Jun after 30.4 °C 45 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Jun after 29.8 °C 44 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Jun after 28.8 °C 49 % 39 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 19
14 Jun after 29.4 °C 44 % 39 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 May 2021
After · 6 Jun 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 · 302Every 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 18 May 2021 and 30 May 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 5,489 hectares (54.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tamazula (5,496 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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
What do you think is wrong?

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.