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Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire, 4 May 2022 Ajuchitlán del Progreso

Out · last detection 10 May 2022, 20:01 UTC

The fire started on 4 May 2022 in Ajuchitlán del Progreso, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,376 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 317th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 109 in Mexico in 2022, of 235.

Burnt area
2,376ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
4 May 2022 – 9 May 2022
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
4 May
2022
Heat detections
136
in a single hotspot: 53 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
950MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 May 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 May9 May

How it evolved, day by day

45678910

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
35km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 14 May.

This area had burned before

12% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 75 ha in 2016, 62 ha in 2019, 196 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 276 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ajuchitlán del Progreso where it started
    2,387 ha reached on 2 May
    1.2 %

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.

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)
2 May 27.5 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 May 26.4 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
4 May 28.1 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
5 May 27.5 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 May 26.3 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm High 31
7 May 27.2 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.4 mm High 27
8 May 27.2 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm High 28
9 May 27.1 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 May after 28.7 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
11 May after 26.8 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.4 mm High 28
12 May after 27.8 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 May after 25.4 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 19
14 May after 25.3 °C 43 % 30 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 13

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Apr 2022
After · 16 May 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.

Detections table · 136Every 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 Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 May 2022 and 9 May 2022: 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 2,376 hectares (23.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ajuchitlán del Progreso (2,387 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.7 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class 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.