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Tlalchapa fire, April 2016 Tlalchapa, Tlatlaya

Out · last detection 8 May 2016, 07:30 UTC

The fire started on 28 April 2016 in Tlalchapa, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,255 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 208th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 45 in Mexico in 2016, of 208.

Burnt area
3,255ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
28 Apr 2016 – 8 May 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
28 Apr
2016
Heat detections
192
in a single hotspot: 95 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 May 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Apr8 May

How it evolved, day by day

2829301234568

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
42km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 49 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.5 mm on 12 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. Tlalchapa where it started
    3,038 ha reached on 28 Apr
    6.4 %
  2. Tlatlaya
    235 ha reached on 3 May
    0.3 %

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.

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)
28 Apr 36.2 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Apr 35.3 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
30 Apr 33.2 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 May 34.9 °C 8 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 May 37.1 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 May 36.2 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 May 37.5 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 May 35.7 °C 21 % 33 km/h 2.2 mm High 27
6 May 35.7 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
7 May 36.4 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
8 May 36.0 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 May after 34.9 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 May after 36.4 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 40
11 May after 37.4 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 40
12 May after 36.4 °C 25 % 28 km/h 2.5 mm High 22

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Apr 2016
After · 15 May 2016

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 · 192Every 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 Tlalchapa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 April 2016 and 8 May 2016: 11 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 3,255 hectares (32.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tlalchapa (3,038 ha, 6.4 %); Tlatlaya (235 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
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.