Tamazula fire, June 2024 Tamazula, Santiago Papasquiaro
The fire started on 3 June 2024 in Tamazula, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,738 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 71th largest in Durango since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 80 in Mexico in 2024, of 289.
- Burnt area
- 3,738ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 3 Jun 2024 – 14 Jun 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 3 Jun
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 251
- in a single hotspot: 33 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.3GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 15 Jun.
This area had burned before
73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,891 ha in 2016, 920 ha in 2017, 1,188 ha in 2019, 244 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,733 ha that had burned before.
- 1,891 ha Tamazula fire, June 2016 2,666 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 920 ha Tamazula fire, May 2017 3,908 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 244 ha Santiago Papasquiaro fire, June 2021 1,883 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Tamazula where it started2,938 ha reached on 4 Jun0.5 %
-
810 ha reached on 11 Jun0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Jun | 30.3 °C | 22 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 4 Jun | 29.8 °C | 23 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 5 Jun | 30.3 °C | 29 % | 48 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 28 |
| 6 Jun | 30.4 °C | 28 % | 41 km/h | 1.1 mm | High 23 |
| 7 Jun | 27.3 °C | 31 % | 41 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 8 Jun | 26.5 °C | 38 % | 44 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 9 Jun | 27.2 °C | 34 % | 44 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 22 |
| 10 Jun | 28.4 °C | 32 % | 45 km/h | 1.7 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 11 Jun | 32.1 °C | 21 % | 46 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 29 |
| 12 Jun | 31.6 °C | 25 % | 44 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 31 |
| 13 Jun | 30.9 °C | 28 % | 48 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 27 |
| 14 Jun | 27.5 °C | 46 % | 52 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 15 Jun after | 29.7 °C | 37 % | 53 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 17 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 9 June 2024 the air beside the fire reached 27 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 251Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Tamazula fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 June 2024 and 14 June 2024: 12 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 3,738 hectares (37.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tamazula (2,938 ha, 0.5 %); Santiago Papasquiaro (810 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.1 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 52 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
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.