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Acuña fire, July 2022 Acuña

Out · last measured on 3 Aug 2022

The fire started on 30 July 2022 in Acuña, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,366 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 30 July 2022 and declared extinguished on 7 August 2022.

It is the 18th largest in Coahuila de Zaragoza since 2016 (of 27 with a page). Number 110 in Mexico in 2022, of 235.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
2,366ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
30 Jul 2022 – 3 Aug 2022
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
30 Jul
2022
Danger at start
60
Extreme · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

37°high
49km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 7 Aug.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Acuña 163,058 inhabitants where it started
    2,377 ha
    0.2 %

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 30 July 2022 and burned 1,945 ha (the satellite measured 2,366 ha).

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 Jul 35.5 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 60
31 Jul 34.8 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
1 Aug 33.9 °C 26 % 49 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 55
2 Aug 35.4 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 47
3 Aug 36.6 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Aug after 36.2 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 50
5 Aug after 34.9 °C 25 % 49 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 54
6 Aug after 32.0 °C 31 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Aug after 33.2 °C 34 % 46 km/h 1.3 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Jul 2022
After · 10 Aug 2022

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mexico ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Acuña fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 July 2022 and 3 August 2022: 5 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 30 July 2022 and declared extinguished on 7 August 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,366 hectares (23.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Acuña (2,377 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, class Extreme.
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.