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Tekax fire, March 2019 Tekax

Out · last detection 8 Apr 2019, 19:11 UTC

The fire started on 28 March 2019 in Tekax, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,451 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 3th largest in Yucatán since 2016 (of 17 with a page). Number 187 in Mexico in 2019, of 364.

Burnt area
2,451ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
28 Mar 2019 – 8 Apr 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
28 Mar
2019
Heat detections
118
in a single hotspot: 125 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Apr 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Mar8 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

2829303112345678

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
58km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.2 mm on 9 Apr.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Tekax 25,751 inhabitants where it started
    2,459 ha reached on 22 Mar
    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.

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)
22 Mar 32.3 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Mar 32.8 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Mar 34.4 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 Mar 34.5 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
26 Mar 35.7 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Mar 33.4 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Mar 32.7 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Mar 34.0 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Mar 35.6 °C 34 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Mar 35.8 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Apr 35.2 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Apr 35.3 °C 37 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Apr 35.4 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Apr 35.8 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Apr 37.0 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.4 mm High 37
6 Apr 35.5 °C 46 % 54 km/h 0.8 mm High 29
7 Apr 36.3 °C 41 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Apr 38.0 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Apr after 31.2 °C 50 % 39 km/h 3.2 mm Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Mar 2019
After · 15 Apr 2019

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 · 118Every 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 Tekax fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 March 2019 and 8 April 2019: 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 2,451 hectares (24.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tekax (2,459 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class 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.