Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire, 30 April 2019 Ajuchitlán del Progreso
The fire started on 30 April 2019 in Ajuchitlán del Progreso, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,986 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 76th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 47 in Mexico in 2019, of 364.
- Burnt area
- 5,986ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 22days
- 30 Apr 2019 – 21 May 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 30 Apr
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 251
- in a single hotspot: 49 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 59MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 25 May.
This area had burned before
51% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,590 ha in 2017, 801 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,076 ha that had burned before.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Ajuchitlán del Progreso where it started6,021 ha reached on 30 Apr3.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Apr | 33.7 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 1 May | 34.9 °C | 16 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 2 May | 33.6 °C | 14 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 3 May | 33.6 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 4 May | 32.1 °C | 20 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 5 May | 32.0 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 6 May | 32.9 °C | 18 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 7 May | 34.2 °C | 11 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 8 May | 33.4 °C | 11 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 9 May | 33.3 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 10 May | 32.0 °C | 16 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 11 May | 34.0 °C | 15 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 12 May | 31.8 °C | 26 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 13 May | 32.4 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 14 May | 32.6 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 15 May | 31.4 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 16 May | 31.5 °C | 27 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 17 May | 29.3 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 30 |
| 18 May | 31.8 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 19 May | 33.8 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 May | 33.7 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 21 May | 33.1 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 22 May after | 32.9 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 23 May after | 32.0 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 24 May after | 31.6 °C | 29 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 25 May after | 31.0 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 20 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 251Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 34,994 haAjuchitlán del Progreso30 April 2019 · 29 days · 15 km away
- 15,541 haAjuchitlán del Progreso25 April 2023 · 20 days · 16 km away
- 14,680 haSan Miguel TotolapanApril 2022 · 27 days · 18 km away
- 18,639 haAjuchitlán del Progreso5 May 2020 · 32 days · 31 km away
- 43,113 haCoyuca de Catalán29 March 2017 · 46 days · 32 km away
- 27,274 haCoyuca de Catalán22 April 2024 · 39 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 30 April 2019 to 21 May 2019 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 May 2019 to 16 May 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,986 hectares (59.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ajuchitlán del Progreso (6,021 ha, 3.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 40 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 2 May 2019 to 16 May 2019. 251 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.