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Valparaíso fire, May 2017 Valparaíso

Out · last detection 5 Jun 2017, 07:59 UTC

The fire started on 28 May 2017 in Valparaíso, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,071 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 25th largest in Zacatecas since 2016 (of 31 with a page). Number 229 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

Burnt area
2,071ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
28 May 2017 – 5 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
28 May
2017
Heat detections
170
in a single hotspot: 80 MW
Danger at start
11
Low · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 Jun 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 May5 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

2829303112345

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
52km/h · peak gust
12%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 9 Jun.

This area had burned before

18% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 368 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Valparaíso where it started
    2,083 ha reached on 28 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.

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 May 28.5 °C 23 % 34 km/h 3.1 mm Low 11
29 May 27.5 °C 24 % 52 km/h 0.5 mm High 31
30 May 26.2 °C 29 % 36 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 16
31 May 25.3 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
1 Jun 27.6 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Jun 28.1 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Jun 27.5 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Jun 27.9 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Jun 27.9 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Jun after 29.7 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Jun after 27.8 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Jun after 27.5 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Jun after 27.6 °C 23 % 38 km/h 1.3 mm High 27

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 May 2017
After · 12 Jun 2017

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 · 170Every 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 Valparaíso fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 May 2017 and 5 June 2017: 9 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 2,071 hectares (20.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Valparaíso (2,083 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.7 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 52 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
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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.