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Temósachic fire, April 2022 Madera, Temósachic

Out · last detection 6 May 2022, 21:20 UTC

The fire started on 17 April 2022 in Temósachic, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,366 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 17 April 2022 and declared extinguished on 9 May 2022.

It is the 13th largest in Chihuahua since 2016 (of 235 with a page). Number 6 in Mexico in 2022, of 235.

Burnt area
12,366ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
20days
17 Apr 2022 – 6 May 2022
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
17 Apr
2022
Heat detections
603
in a single hotspot: 88 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
5.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 May 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Apr6 May

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021222324252627282930123456

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
61km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 26 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,313 ha in 2017, 5,573 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,574 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Madera
    10,588 ha reached on 23 Apr
    1.2 %
  2. Temósachic where it started
    1,761 ha reached on 17 Apr
    0.4 %

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 17 April 2022 and burned 10,988 ha (the satellite measured 12,366 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)
17 Apr 28.2 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Apr 31.6 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Apr 28.2 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Apr 27.1 °C 17 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Apr 28.2 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Apr 26.5 °C 18 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
23 Apr 24.5 °C 17 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Apr 24.6 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Apr 28.3 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Apr 29.5 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.6 mm High 38
27 Apr 27.3 °C 13 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Apr 26.2 °C 13 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Apr 26.3 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Apr 28.2 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 May 26.5 °C 10 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 May 26.2 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 May 27.3 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 May 26.2 °C 16 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 May 27.9 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 May 29.9 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 May after 28.1 °C 19 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 May after 28.3 °C 11 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 May after 28.8 °C 12 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
10 May after 28.8 °C 19 % 52 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 48
11 May after 30.4 °C 14 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 May after 30.1 °C 9 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 May after 30.9 °C 8 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
14 May after 32.7 °C 4 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 May after 33.5 °C 7 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
16 May after 31.6 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Apr 2022
After · 13 May 2022

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 · 603Every 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 Temósachic fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 April 2022 and 6 May 2022: 20 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 17 April 2022 and declared extinguished on 9 May 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 12,366 hectares (123.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Madera (10,588 ha, 1.2 %); Temósachic (1,761 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.