How long did the Apaxtla fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 April 2021 and 1 May 2021: 20 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 11,305 hectares (113.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Apaxtla (9,817 ha, 16 %); Arcelia (979 ha, 1.3 %); Teloloapan (572 ha, 0.6 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, class Extreme.

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.

MX · Mexico · 2021-04-12 → 2021-05-01

Apaxtla fire, April 2021 Apaxtla, Arcelia, Teloloapan

Out · last detection 2 May 2021, 19:54 UTC

The fire started on 12 April 2021 in Apaxtla, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,305 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 27th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 7 in Mexico in 2021, of 295.

Burnt area: 11,305ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 20days; 12 Apr 2021 – 1 May 2021
Municipalities hit: 3; municipalities
Started on: 12 Apr; 2021
Heat detections: 650; in a single hotspot: 88 MW
Danger at start: 48; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 3.9GW; sum of detected power

Play back 2 May 2021

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Apr1 May

How it evolved, day by day

1213141516171819202122232425262728293012

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

The weather it burned in

37°high

51km/h · peak gust

4%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.1 mm on 9 May.

This area had burned before

40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 87 ha in 2016, 3,663 ha in 2019, 1,317 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,514 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Apaxtla where it started

9,817 ha reached on 8 Apr

16 %
Arcelia

979 ha reached on 13 Apr

1.3 %
Teloloapan

572 ha reached on 18 Apr

0.6 %

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)
8 Apr	34.4 °C	13 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
9 Apr	35.4 °C	15 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
10 Apr	34.7 °C	11 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
11 Apr	36.2 °C	14 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
12 Apr	35.8 °C	15 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
13 Apr	37.2 °C	13 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
14 Apr	36.3 °C	16 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
15 Apr	36.6 °C	11 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
16 Apr	36.3 °C	7 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
17 Apr	36.2 °C	11 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
18 Apr	35.2 °C	4 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 61
19 Apr	34.7 °C	7 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
20 Apr	34.9 °C	10 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
21 Apr	35.9 °C	12 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
22 Apr	34.4 °C	17 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
23 Apr	33.8 °C	19 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
24 Apr	34.2 °C	21 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
25 Apr	36.5 °C	18 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
26 Apr	35.7 °C	18 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
27 Apr	36.2 °C	14 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
28 Apr	35.2 °C	19 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
29 Apr	33.8 °C	21 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
30 Apr	34.1 °C	22 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
1 May	33.4 °C	19 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
2 May after	32.9 °C	21 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
3 May after	32.9 °C	21 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
4 May after	33.3 °C	17 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
5 May after	36.3 °C	14 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
6 May after	34.3 °C	29 %	28 km/h	5.6 mm	Low 9
7 May after	34.5 °C	24 %	31 km/h	2.3 mm	Moderate 16
8 May after	34.5 °C	33 %	39 km/h	0.9 mm	High 26
9 May after	31.1 °C	43 %	43 km/h	6.1 mm	Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 5 Apr 2021

After · 8 May 2021

Before After

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 · 650Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mexico ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Apaxtla fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 April 2021 and 1 May 2021: 20 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 11,305 hectares (113.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Apaxtla (9,817 ha, 16 %); Arcelia (979 ha, 1.3 %); Teloloapan (572 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, class Extreme.
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

CONAFOR · Comisión Nacional Forestal ↗
CENAPRED ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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.

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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.

Where it burned