Skip to content
worldfires
MX · Mexico · →

Tlatlaya fire, April 2016 Tlatlaya, Tlalchapa

Out · last detection 16 Apr 2016, 07:43 UTC

The fire started on 11 April 2016 in Tlatlaya, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,532 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 27th largest in México since 2016 (of 27 with a page). Number 199 in Mexico in 2016, of 208.

Burnt area
1,532ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
11 Apr 2016 – 17 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
11 Apr
2016
Heat detections
52
in a single hotspot: 71 MW
Danger at start
51
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
579MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Apr17 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

111213141516

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
47km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 days 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. Tlatlaya where it started
    1,362 ha reached on 11 Apr
    1.7 %
  2. Tlalchapa
    178 ha reached on 14 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.

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)
11 Apr 37.7 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Apr 37.3 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Apr 38.2 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
14 Apr 35.5 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Apr 36.4 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
16 Apr 34.9 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Apr 36.8 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Apr after 37.6 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Apr after 35.4 °C 24 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
20 Apr after 33.5 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Apr after 36.5 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.7 mm Very high 47
22 Apr after 31.6 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 43
23 Apr after 31.1 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Apr after 35.0 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Apr after 35.3 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Apr after 33.6 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Apr after 37.1 °C 7 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Apr 2016
After · 24 Apr 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 · 52Every 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 Tlatlaya fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 April 2016 and 17 April 2016: 7 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 1,532 hectares (15.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tlatlaya (1,362 ha, 1.7 %); Tlalchapa (178 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.