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Temascaltepec fire, April 2019 Temascaltepec, Valle de Bravo, Zacazonapan

Out · last detection 10 May 2019, 19:11 UTC

The fire started on 25 April 2019 in Temascaltepec, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,428 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in México since 2016 (of 27 with a page). Number 114 in Mexico in 2019, of 364.

Burnt area
3,428ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
25 Apr 2019 – 10 May 2019
Municipalities hit
4
municipalities
Started on
25 Apr
2019
Heat detections
191
in a single hotspot: 54 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 May 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Apr10 May

How it evolved, day by day

2526272829301234567910

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
43km/h · peak gust
11%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. Temascaltepec where it started
    3,072 ha reached on 25 Apr
    5.4 %
  2. Valle de Bravo
    200 ha reached on 26 Apr
    0.5 %
  3. Zacazonapan
    141 ha reached on 26 Apr
    2.1 %
  4. Otzoloapan
    33 ha
    0.2 %

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 24 April 2019 and burned 1,530 ha (the satellite measured 3,428 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)
25 Apr 28.8 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Apr 30.0 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Apr 28.8 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Apr 29.1 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Apr 29.2 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 39
30 Apr 29.4 °C 26 % 38 km/h 1.2 mm High 26
1 May 30.7 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
2 May 30.4 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 39
3 May 28.7 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 May 28.6 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 May 28.9 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 May 28.8 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 May 29.9 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 May 29.3 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 May 28.8 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 May 28.3 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 May after 29.6 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 May after 29.2 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 May after 29.3 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 May after 30.0 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 May after 29.3 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 May after 28.7 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 May after 26.7 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 38
18 May after 28.7 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 May after 29.7 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
20 May after 29.9 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Apr 2019
After · 17 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 · 191Every 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 Temascaltepec fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 April 2019 and 10 May 2019: 16 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 3,428 hectares (34.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Temascaltepec (3,072 ha, 5.4 %); Valle de Bravo (200 ha, 0.5 %); Zacazonapan (141 ha, 2.1 %); Otzoloapan (33 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.7 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 43 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.

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.