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Tekax fire, April 2019 Tekax

Out · last detection 5 May 2019, 19:05 UTC

The fire started on 20 April 2019 in Tekax, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,531 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 22 April 2019 and declared extinguished on 17 May 2019.

It is the 17th largest in Yucatán since 2016 (of 17 with a page). Number 346 in Mexico in 2019, of 364.

Burnt area
1,531ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
20 Apr 2019 – 5 May 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
20 Apr
2019
Heat detections
85
in a single hotspot: 64 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 May 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Apr5 May

How it evolved, day by day

20212223242628301235

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
53km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.9 mm on 6 May.

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
    1,536 ha reached on 20 Apr
    0.6 %

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 22 April 2019 and burned 1,333 ha (the satellite measured 1,531 ha).

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)
20 Apr 33.7 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Apr 35.0 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Apr 36.1 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Apr 36.3 °C 36 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Apr 36.1 °C 38 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Apr 38.0 °C 34 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Apr 36.2 °C 40 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Apr 34.6 °C 45 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Apr 37.1 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.7 mm High 35
29 Apr 35.3 °C 47 % 44 km/h 0.5 mm High 34
30 Apr 35.0 °C 44 % 53 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
1 May 36.8 °C 37 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 May 35.5 °C 43 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 May 35.9 °C 45 % 49 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
4 May 37.5 °C 48 % 47 km/h 0.8 mm High 27
5 May 37.9 °C 46 % 41 km/h 4.4 mm Moderate 13
6 May after 35.9 °C 51 % 42 km/h 5.9 mm Low 7

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Apr 2019
After · 12 May 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 · 85Every 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 20 April 2019 and 5 May 2019: 16 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 22 April 2019 and declared extinguished on 17 May 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,531 hectares (15.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tekax (1,536 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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
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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.