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Tepic fire, May 2021 Tepic

Out · last detection 2 Jun 2021, 20:15 UTC

The fire started on 25 May 2021 in Tepic, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,712 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 50th largest in Nayarit since 2016 (of 179 with a page). Number 89 in Mexico in 2021, of 295.

Burnt area
3,712ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
25 May 2021 – 1 Jun 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
25 May
2021
Heat detections
168
in a single hotspot: 36 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
824MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Jun 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 May1 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

2526272829303112

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
43km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 13.4 mm on 12 Jun.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Tepic 425,924 inhabitants where it started
    3,728 ha reached on 25 May
    2.3 %

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 25 May 2021 and burned 2,851 ha (the satellite measured 3,712 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 May 28.1 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 May 28.0 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 May 28.0 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 May 26.9 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 May 26.2 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 May 27.1 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 May 27.1 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Jun 26.2 °C 41 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Jun after 26.5 °C 44 % 35 km/h 6.2 mm Very low 4
3 Jun after 23.1 °C 59 % 31 km/h 16.9 mm Very low 0
4 Jun after 24.2 °C 44 % 35 km/h 0.9 mm Very low 4
5 Jun after 25.6 °C 49 % 35 km/h 1.6 mm Very low 4
6 Jun after 26.6 °C 43 % 37 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 12
7 Jun after 28.2 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
8 Jun after 27.5 °C 46 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
9 Jun after 27.9 °C 46 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
10 Jun after 27.8 °C 44 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
11 Jun after 26.3 °C 48 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 18
12 Jun after 24.8 °C 51 % 33 km/h 13.4 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 May 2021
After · 8 Jun 2021

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 · 168Every 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 Tepic fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 May 2021 and 1 June 2021: 8 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 3,712 hectares (37.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tepic (3,728 ha, 2.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.2 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.