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Tecoanapa fire, April 2017 Tecoanapa, San Marcos, Juan R. Escudero

Out · last detection 18 Apr 2017, 19:11 UTC

The fire started on 5 April 2017 in Tecoanapa, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,694 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 110th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 74 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

Burnt area
4,694ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
5 Apr 2017 – 18 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
5 Apr
2017
Heat detections
174
in a single hotspot: 33 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
683MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Apr18 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

56789101112131415161718

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
49km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 21 days 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. Tecoanapa where it started
    4,132 ha reached on 5 Apr
    5.9 %
  2. San Marcos
    590 ha reached on 14 Apr
    0.5 %
  3. Juan R. Escudero
    0 ha
    0.0 %

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)
5 Apr 31.5 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Apr 32.1 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Apr 32.6 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Apr 31.8 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Apr 31.2 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Apr 30.9 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Apr 32.6 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Apr 31.0 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Apr 31.6 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Apr 32.5 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Apr 32.4 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Apr 31.4 °C 21 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Apr 31.0 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Apr 31.0 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 42
19 Apr after 30.6 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Apr after 30.5 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.9 mm High 34
21 Apr after 30.0 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Apr after 30.0 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Apr after 30.5 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Apr after 31.0 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Apr after 30.6 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Apr after 28.9 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Apr after 29.0 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Apr after 28.8 °C 43 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Mar 2017
After · 25 Apr 2017

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 · 174Every 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 Tecoanapa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 April 2017 and 18 April 2017: 14 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 4,694 hectares (46.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tecoanapa (4,132 ha, 5.9 %); San Marcos (590 ha, 0.5 %); Juan R. Escudero (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.