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Yécora fire, May 2018 Yécora

Out · last detection 22 May 2018, 21:14 UTC

The fire started on 17 May 2018 in Yécora, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,249 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 38th largest in Sonora since 2016 (of 93 with a page). Number 45 in Mexico in 2018, of 235.

Burnt area
4,249ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
17 May 2018 – 22 May 2018
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
17 May
2018
Heat detections
216
in a single hotspot: 63 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 May 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 May22 May

How it evolved, day by day

171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
46km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 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
    4,264 ha reached on 17 May
    1.6 %

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)
17 May 32.8 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 May 30.6 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 May 30.3 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 May 31.7 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 May 31.1 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 May 30.3 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 May after 31.9 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 May after 33.6 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 May after 35.3 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 May after 35.6 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 May after 34.2 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 May after 34.6 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
29 May after 34.0 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
30 May after 33.9 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 May after 36.1 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Jun after 36.5 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 May 2018
After · 29 May 2018

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 · 216Every 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 17 May 2018 and 22 May 2018: 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 4,249 hectares (42.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Yécora (4,264 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.