Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire, 22 April 2025 Ajuchitlán del Progreso
The fire started on 22 April 2025 in Ajuchitlán del Progreso, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,035 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 96th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 31 in Mexico in 2025, of 167.
- Burnt area
- 5,035ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 22 Apr 2025 – 30 Apr 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 22 Apr
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 256
- in a single hotspot: 36 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.2GW
- 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 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 7 May.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,421 ha in 2016, 4,090 ha in 2017, 4,974 ha in 2019, 3,319 ha in 2020, 4,044 ha in 2023, 160 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,063 ha that had burned before.
- 4,974 ha Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire, May 2019 34,994 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,766 ha Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire, April 2023 15,541 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,319 ha Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire, May 2020 18,639 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,109 ha Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire, March 2017 3,168 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,421 ha Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire, April 2016 1,869 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,268 ha Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire, April 2017 6,171 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 693 ha Coyuca de Catalán fire, March 2017 43,113 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 278 ha Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire, March 2023 3,423 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Ajuchitlán del Progreso where it started5,059 ha reached on 19 Apr2.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Apr | 30.5 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 20 Apr | 30.1 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 21 Apr | 30.0 °C | 32 % | 29 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 24 |
| 22 Apr | 29.6 °C | 37 % | 42 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 23 Apr | 29.7 °C | 39 % | 33 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 24 Apr | 29.5 °C | 43 % | 30 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 25 Apr | 30.7 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 23 |
| 26 Apr | 29.6 °C | 41 % | 28 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 27 Apr | 30.0 °C | 31 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 28 Apr | 29.7 °C | 35 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 29 Apr | 30.1 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 30 Apr | 30.4 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 1 May after | 30.8 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 23 |
| 2 May after | 30.2 °C | 35 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 3 May after | 29.8 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 4 May after | 30.1 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 27 |
| 5 May after | 31.0 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 27 |
| 6 May after | 30.3 °C | 38 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 7 May after | 30.5 °C | 39 % | 31 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 18 |
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 26 April 2025 the air beside the fire reached 34 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 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 · 256Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 18,639 haAjuchitlán del Progreso12 May 2020 · 22 days · 11 km away
- 34,994 haAjuchitlán del Progreso6 May 2019 · 19 days · 12 km away
- 15,541 haAjuchitlán del Progreso25 April 2023 · 20 days · 12 km away
- 14,680 haSan Miguel TotolapanMay 2022 · 18 days · 19 km away
- 27,274 haCoyuca de Catalán22 April 2024 · 39 days · 26 km away
- 43,113 haCoyuca de Catalán31 March 2017 · 37 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ajuchitlán del Progreso fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 April 2025 and 30 April 2025: 9 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 5,035 hectares (50.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ajuchitlán del Progreso (5,059 ha, 2.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.8 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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
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.