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Tecolotlán fire, April 2017 Tecolotlán, Atemajac de Brizuela, Cocula

Out · last detection 7 May 2017, 08:44 UTC

The fire started on 29 April 2017 in Tecolotlán, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,904 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 96th largest in Jalisco since 2016 (of 283 with a page). Number 137 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

Burnt area
2,904ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
29 Apr 2017 – 7 May 2017
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
29 Apr
2017
Heat detections
145
in a single hotspot: 130 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 May 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Apr7 May

How it evolved, day by day

2930123567

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
51km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 50 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. Tecolotlán where it started
    2,059 ha reached on 29 Apr
    2.7 %
  2. Atemajac de Brizuela
    611 ha reached on 1 May
    1.7 %
  3. Cocula
    248 ha reached on 3 May
    0.8 %

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, 3 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 1,113 ha (the satellite measured 2,904 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)
29 Apr 28.4 °C 10 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
30 Apr 29.3 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 May 30.8 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 May 28.9 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
3 May 28.8 °C 14 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
4 May 30.7 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 May 29.1 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 May 28.6 °C 20 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 May 28.3 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 May after 26.5 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 May after 27.4 °C 24 % 49 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 42
10 May after 30.0 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 May after 30.6 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 May after 29.9 °C 19 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 May after 29.1 °C 20 % 52 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 44
14 May after 29.9 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 May after 30.5 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
16 May after 31.0 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 May after 30.8 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Apr 2017
After · 14 May 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 · 145Every 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 Tecolotlán fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 April 2017 and 7 May 2017: 9 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 2,904 hectares (29.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tecolotlán (2,059 ha, 2.7 %); Atemajac de Brizuela (611 ha, 1.7 %); Cocula (248 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.8 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Extreme.
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.