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Zinacantán fire, March 2016 Zinacantán, San Lucas

Out · last detection 27 Mar 2016, 20:08 UTC

The fire started on 23 March 2016 in Zinacantán, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,594 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 241th largest in Chiapas since 2016 (of 265 with a page). Number 184 in Mexico in 2016, of 208.

Burnt area
1,594ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
23 Mar 2016 – 26 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
23 Mar
2016
Heat detections
49
in a single hotspot: 99 MW
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
459MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Mar26 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

2324252627

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
35km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 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. Zinacantán where it started
    898 ha reached on 23 Mar
    4.6 %
  2. San Lucas
    705 ha reached on 24 Mar
    7.5 %

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)
23 Mar 31.3 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
24 Mar 33.1 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 19
25 Mar 30.4 °C 46 % 31 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 14
26 Mar 31.1 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 17
27 Mar after 32.9 °C 41 % 29 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 16
28 Mar after 30.7 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
29 Mar after 29.6 °C 43 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
30 Mar after 30.7 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 20
31 Mar after 30.8 °C 42 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
1 Apr after 30.9 °C 37 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
2 Apr after 28.5 °C 36 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
3 Apr after 25.0 °C 55 % 37 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 18
4 Apr after 28.2 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
5 Apr after 29.2 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Mar 2016
After · 2 Apr 2016

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 · 49Every 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 Zinacantán fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 March 2016 and 26 March 2016: 4 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 1,594 hectares (15.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Zinacantán (898 ha, 4.6 %); San Lucas (705 ha, 7.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 19, class Moderate.
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.