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Tumbiscatío fire, May 2018 Tumbiscatío, Aguililla

Out · last detection 24 May 2018, 07:42 UTC

The fire started on 14 May 2018 in Tumbiscatío, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,840 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 28th largest in Michoacan de Ocampo since 2016 (of 111 with a page). Number 89 in Mexico in 2018, of 235.

Burnt area
2,840ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
14 May 2018 – 23 May 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
14 May
2018
Heat detections
120
in a single hotspot: 31 MW
Danger at start
1
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
572MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 May 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 May23 May

How it evolved, day by day

1415161718192021222324

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
31km/h · peak gust
45%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 1 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. Tumbiscatío where it started
    2,852 ha reached on 14 May
    1.4 %
  2. Aguililla
    1 ha
    0.0 %

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)
14 May 26.5 °C 51 % 31 km/h 1.1 mm Very low 1
15 May 27.1 °C 48 % 27 km/h 4.8 mm Very low 0
16 May 27.1 °C 53 % 28 km/h 11.3 mm Very low 0
17 May 25.5 °C 61 % 28 km/h 15.7 mm Very low 0
18 May 27.0 °C 52 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 0
19 May 28.2 °C 48 % 27 km/h 0.3 mm Very low 2
20 May 27.2 °C 48 % 28 km/h 0.3 mm Very low 4
21 May 27.5 °C 52 % 29 km/h 1.0 mm Very low 3
22 May 28.2 °C 45 % 30 km/h 0.4 mm Low 6
23 May 27.9 °C 48 % 29 km/h 0.6 mm Low 6
24 May after 26.2 °C 61 % 28 km/h 6.9 mm Very low 0
25 May after 27.6 °C 47 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
26 May after 27.3 °C 49 % 33 km/h 0.7 mm Very low 4
27 May after 27.5 °C 49 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
28 May after 28.0 °C 49 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
29 May after 27.8 °C 52 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm Low 8
30 May after 28.6 °C 52 % 33 km/h 0.4 mm Low 9
31 May after 27.8 °C 55 % 34 km/h 0.7 mm Low 7
1 Jun after 26.5 °C 57 % 34 km/h 1.3 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 May 2018
After · 30 May 2018

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 · 120Every 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 Tumbiscatío fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 May 2018 and 23 May 2018: 10 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 2,840 hectares (28.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tumbiscatío (2,852 ha, 1.4 %); Aguililla (1 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.2 °C, humidity dropped to 45 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 6, class Low.
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.