Skip to content
worldfires
MX · Mexico · →

Urique fire, 13 May 2022 Urique, Guazapares

Out · last detection 22 May 2022, 19:39 UTC

The fire started on 13 May 2022 in Urique, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,237 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 132th largest in Chihuahua since 2016 (of 235 with a page). Number 117 in Mexico in 2022, of 235.

Burnt area
2,237ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
13 May 2022 – 22 May 2022
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
13 May
2022
Heat detections
93
in a single hotspot: 41 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
445MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 May 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 May22 May

How it evolved, day by day

13141516171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
49km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Urique where it started
    1,569 ha reached on 13 May
    0.5 %
  2. Guazapares
    675 ha reached on 14 May
    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 14 May 2022 and burned 1,235 ha (the satellite measured 2,237 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)
13 May 33.7 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 May 34.7 °C 16 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 May 35.0 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 May 34.3 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 May 31.7 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 May 31.3 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 May 30.3 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 May 28.1 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 May 30.1 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 May 30.5 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 May after 28.6 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 May after 29.3 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 May after 32.5 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 May after 33.8 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 May after 34.7 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 May after 34.9 °C 12 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
29 May after 30.7 °C 21 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 May after 30.9 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
31 May after 32.7 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Jun after 33.1 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 May 2022
After · 29 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 · 93Every 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 Urique fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 May 2022 and 22 May 2022: 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 2,237 hectares (22.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Urique (1,569 ha, 0.5 %); Guazapares (675 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.

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.