Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire, 9 May 2024 Ajuchitlán del Progreso
The fire started on 9 May 2024 in Ajuchitlán del Progreso, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,078 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 391th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 178 in Mexico in 2024, of 289.
- Burnt area
- 2,078ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 9 May 2024 – 14 May 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 9 May
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 75
- in a single hotspot: 51 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 64MW
- 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.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,558 ha in 2017, 1,794 ha in 2019, 933 ha in 2020, 639 ha in 2021, 2,052 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,013 ha that had burned before.
- 1,826 ha Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire, April 2023 6,413 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,558 ha Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire, May 2017 2,908 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,500 ha Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire, May 2019 5,986 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 639 ha Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire, April 2021 2,011 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
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 started2,090 ha1.0 %
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 8 May 2024 and burned 2,916 ha (the satellite measured 2,078 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
- Ajuchitlán del Progreso El Espíritu 8 May 2024 2,916 ha · extinguished on 23 May 2024 · cause: unknown
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 May | 34.1 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 7 May | 35.2 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 8 May | 35.7 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 9 May | 36.3 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 10 May | 35.2 °C | 17 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 11 May | 34.2 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 12 May | 34.1 °C | 20 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 13 May | 33.2 °C | 21 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 14 May | 33.2 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 15 May after | 33.4 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 16 May after | 33.0 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 17 May after | 33.3 °C | 24 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 18 May after | 33.5 °C | 22 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 19 May after | 34.9 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 20 May after | 33.3 °C | 25 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 21 May after | 34.1 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 22 May after | 32.9 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 23 May after | 34.5 °C | 19 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 24 May after | 35.4 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 25 May after | 36.1 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 26 May after | 34.8 °C | 22 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 9 May 2024 the air beside the fire reached 67 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 49: 3.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 75Every 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 Progreso6 May 2019 · 19 days · 11 km away
- 15,541 haAjuchitlán del Progreso25 April 2023 · 20 days · 13 km away
- 14,680 haSan Miguel TotolapanMay 2022 · 18 days · 19 km away
- 43,113 haCoyuca de Catalán31 March 2017 · 37 days · 29 km away
- 18,639 haAjuchitlán del Progreso12 May 2020 · 22 days · 29 km away
- 27,274 haCoyuca de Catalán22 April 2024 · 39 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 May 2024 and 14 May 2024: 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 2,078 hectares (20.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ajuchitlán del Progreso (2,090 ha, 1.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 75 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with CONAFOR: 2,916 official ha against 2,078 ha of perimeter; similar, but with reservations.
- 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.