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Uruapan fire, April 2022 Uruapan, Taretan

Out · last detection 2 May 2022, 20:52 UTC

The fire started on 28 April 2022 in Uruapan, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,629 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 17th largest in Michoacan de Ocampo since 2016 (of 111 with a page). Number 51 in Mexico in 2022, of 235.

Burnt area
3,629ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
28 Apr 2022 – 2 May 2022
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
28 Apr
2022
Heat detections
195
in a single hotspot: 210 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 May 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Apr2 May

How it evolved, day by day

28293012

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
44km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Uruapan where it started
    3,633 ha reached on 28 Apr
    3.6 %
  2. Taretan
    13 ha
    0.1 %

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 1 May 2022 and burned 1,630 ha (the satellite measured 3,629 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)
28 Apr 29.9 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Apr 28.8 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Apr 28.5 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 May 30.1 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 May 29.6 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 May after 29.9 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 May after 29.6 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
5 May after 29.0 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 May after 28.5 °C 37 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 May after 29.7 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 May after 28.4 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 May after 29.6 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 May after 31.5 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 May after 29.5 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 May after 30.6 °C 32 % 48 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 · 21 Apr 2022
After · 9 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 · 195Every 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 Uruapan fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 April 2022 and 2 May 2022: 5 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 3,629 hectares (36.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Uruapan (3,633 ha, 3.6 %); Taretan (13 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.1 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.