Arcelia fire, April 2025 Arcelia, San Miguel Totolapan
The fire started on 21 April 2025 in Arcelia, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,802 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 254th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 72 in Mexico in 2025, of 167.
- Burnt area
- 2,802ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 21 Apr 2025 – 29 Apr 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 21 Apr
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 140
- in a single hotspot: 31 MW
- Danger at start
- 50
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 654MW
- 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 57 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
70% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,932 ha in 2016, 7 ha in 2017, 15 ha in 2020.
- 1,932 ha Arcelia fire, May 2016 2,413 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 15 ha Arcelia fire, March 2020 2,607 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7 ha Arcelia fire, March 2017 2,933 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Arcelia where it started2,650 ha reached on 20 Apr3.5 %
-
166 ha reached on 21 Apr0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Apr | 36.2 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 21 Apr | 36.0 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 22 Apr | 37.3 °C | 19 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 23 Apr | 36.4 °C | 23 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 24 Apr | 36.3 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 25 Apr | 36.5 °C | 19 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 26 Apr | 37.3 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 42 |
| 27 Apr | 36.9 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 28 Apr | 36.2 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 29 Apr | 35.2 °C | 28 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 30 Apr after | 36.2 °C | 27 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 1 May after | 37.4 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 2 May after | 36.9 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 3 May after | 36.9 °C | 19 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 4 May after | 36.0 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 5 May after | 36.7 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 6 May after | 37.2 °C | 25 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 7 May after | 37.8 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 8 May after | 38.0 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 9 May after | 36.2 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
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 47 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 36: 2.4 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 · 140Every 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 Arcelia fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 April 2025 and 29 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 2,802 hectares (28.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Arcelia (2,650 ha, 3.5 %); San Miguel Totolapan (166 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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
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.