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Tecalitlán fire, 2 May 2024 Tecalitlán

Out · last detection 6 May 2024, 08:20 UTC

The fire started on 2 May 2024 in Tecalitlán, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,759 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 236th largest in Jalisco since 2016 (of 283 with a page). Number 235 in Mexico in 2024, of 289.

Burnt area
1,759ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
2 May 2024 – 6 May 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
2 May
2024
Heat detections
127
in a single hotspot: 53 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
652MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 May 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 May6 May

How it evolved, day by day

23456

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
52km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Tecalitlán where it started
    1,768 ha reached on 2 May
    1.4 %

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.

Official record

According to CONAFOR, this fire started on 2 May 2024 and burned 854 ha (the satellite measured 1,759 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)
2 May 30.4 °C 16 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 May 31.2 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 May 31.6 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 May 32.5 °C 20 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 May 31.4 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 May after 31.5 °C 19 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 May after 31.1 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 May after 32.1 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 May after 31.7 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 May after 30.8 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 May after 30.6 °C 23 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 May after 29.8 °C 23 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 May after 30.6 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 May after 30.9 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 May after 30.2 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Apr 2024
After · 13 May 2024

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 · Copernicus

On 6 May 2024 the air beside the fire reached 51 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 31: 2.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak51 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM1074 µg/m³
Optical depth0.88
30123456789
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 127Every 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 Tecalitlán fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 May 2024 and 6 May 2024: 5 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 1,759 hectares (17.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tecalitlán (1,768 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.5 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.