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Xalisco fire, 30 May 2017 San Pedro Lagunillas, Compostela, Xalisco

Out · last detection 9 Jun 2017, 19:37 UTC

The fire started on 30 May 2017 in Xalisco, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,550 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 37th largest in Nayarit since 2016 (of 179 with a page). Number 79 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

Burnt area
4,550ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
30 May 2017 – 9 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit
4
municipalities
Started on
30 May
2017
Heat detections
295
in a single hotspot: 121 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Jun 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 May9 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

3031123456789

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
49km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 15 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. San Pedro Lagunillas
    2,705 ha reached on 31 May
    5.2 %
  2. Compostela
    1,757 ha reached on 30 May
    0.9 %
  3. Xalisco 65,229 inhabitants where it started
    85 ha reached on 30 May
    0.2 %
  4. Santa María del Oro
    30 ha reached on 11 Jun
    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.

Official record

According to CONAFOR, 7 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 1,636 ha (the satellite measured 4,550 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)
30 May 30.2 °C 30 % 48 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
31 May 29.4 °C 37 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Jun 29.3 °C 31 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Jun 29.3 °C 34 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Jun 29.0 °C 32 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Jun 29.1 °C 29 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Jun 29.8 °C 28 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Jun 28.9 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Jun 27.6 °C 44 % 42 km/h 0.4 mm High 30
8 Jun 28.9 °C 42 % 44 km/h 2.6 mm Low 11
9 Jun 28.4 °C 43 % 42 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 20
10 Jun after 28.5 °C 41 % 48 km/h 0.7 mm High 23
11 Jun after 28.4 °C 40 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
12 Jun after 29.2 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.5 mm High 25
13 Jun after 28.1 °C 50 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
14 Jun after 27.7 °C 54 % 43 km/h 0.4 mm High 23
15 Jun after 28.4 °C 45 % 45 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 May 2017
After · 16 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 · 295Every 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 Xalisco fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 May 2017 and 9 June 2017: 11 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 4,550 hectares (45.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: San Pedro Lagunillas (2,705 ha, 5.2 %); Compostela (1,757 ha, 0.9 %); Xalisco (85 ha, 0.2 %); Santa María del Oro (30 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.2 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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.

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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.