Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire, 12 May 2022 Ajuchitlán del Progreso, Coyuca de Catalán
The fire started on 12 May 2022 in Ajuchitlán del Progreso, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,079 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 390th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 138 in Mexico in 2022, of 235.
- Burnt area
- 2,079ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 12 May 2022 – 19 May 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 12 May
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 84
- in a single hotspot: 75 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 742MW
- sum of detected power
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 30 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.4 mm on 23 May.
This area had burned before
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,792 ha in 2017, 1,464 ha in 2019, 8 ha in 2020, 289 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,821 ha that had burned before.
- 1,792 ha Coyuca de Catalán fire, March 2017 43,113 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,464 ha Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire, May 2019 34,994 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 289 ha Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire, April 2021 5,466 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8 ha Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire, April 2020 5,312 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Ajuchitlán del Progreso where it started1,255 ha reached on 10 May0.6 %
-
834 ha reached on 15 May0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 May | 34.3 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 11 May | 32.8 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 12 May | 32.4 °C | 23 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 13 May | 30.4 °C | 31 % | 32 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 35 |
| 14 May | 30.4 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 26 |
| 15 May | 30.7 °C | 28 % | 31 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 28 |
| 16 May | 32.0 °C | 23 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 17 May | 31.6 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 18 May | 32.4 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 May | 32.9 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 May after | 31.6 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 21 May after | 31.7 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 36 |
| 22 May after | 30.9 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 32 |
| 23 May after | 30.8 °C | 37 % | 31 km/h | 3.4 mm | Low 9 |
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 · 84Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 May 2022 and 19 May 2022: 8 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 2,079 hectares (20.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ajuchitlán del Progreso (1,255 ha, 0.6 %); Coyuca de Catalán (834 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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
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.