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Yécora fire, April 2017 Yécora

Out · last detection 23 Apr 2017, 21:01 UTC

The fire started on 18 April 2017 in Yécora, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,713 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 56th largest in Sonora since 2016 (of 93 with a page). Number 153 in Mexico in 2017, of 375.

Burnt area
2,713ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
18 Apr 2017 – 23 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
18 Apr
2017
Heat detections
179
in a single hotspot: 76 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Apr23 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
48km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 29 days 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. Yécora where it started
    2,723 ha reached on 18 Apr
    1.0 %

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, this fire started on 18 April 2017 and burned 1,959 ha (the satellite measured 2,713 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)
18 Apr 32.7 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Apr 36.0 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Apr 33.6 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Apr 32.6 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Apr 34.3 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Apr 32.7 °C 22 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Apr after 31.7 °C 21 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Apr after 28.9 °C 27 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
26 Apr after 29.1 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Apr after 29.7 °C 31 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Apr after 27.8 °C 40 % 65 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Apr after 24.3 °C 44 % 51 km/h 0.9 mm High 22
30 Apr after 29.6 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 May after 31.6 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 May after 31.8 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 May after 32.7 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Apr 2017
After · 30 Apr 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 · 179Every 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 Yécora fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 April 2017 and 23 April 2017: 6 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 2,713 hectares (27.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Yécora (2,723 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.