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Arriaga fire, 19 March 2021 Arriaga, San Pedro Tapanatepec

Out · last detection 14 Apr 2021, 18:51 UTC

The fire started on 19 March 2021 in Arriaga, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,611 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities. According to CONAFOR, the largest of the 4 recorded fires was detected on 31 March 2021 and declared extinguished on 6 April 2021.

It is the 19th largest in Chiapas since 2016 (of 267 with a page). Number 37 in Mexico in 2021, of 295.

Compare with…

Suggestions: San Pedro Tapanatepec · 2019San Pedro Tapanatepec · 2016Arriaga · 2017Arriaga · 2024

Burnt area
5,611ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
28days
19 Mar 2021 – 15 Apr 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
19 Mar
2021
Heat detections
434
in a single hotspot: 103 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
119MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Mar15 Apr
14 Apr 2021

How it evolved, day by day

19 Mar 2021 · 5 MW · 1 20 Mar 2021 · 90 MW · 14 21 Mar 2021 · 58 MW · 20 22 Mar 2021 · 41 MW · 8 23 Mar 2021 · 5 MW · 3 26 Mar 2021 · 44 MW · 11 27 Mar 2021 · 34 MW · 10 28 Mar 2021 · 14 MW · 4 29 Mar 2021 · 26 MW · 3 30 Mar 2021 · 7 MW · 2 31 Mar 2021 · 122 MW · 11 1 Apr 2021 · 315 MW · 41 2 Apr 2021 · 173 MW · 24 3 Apr 2021 · 822 MW · 91 4 Apr 2021 · 612 MW · 134 5 Apr 2021 · 287 MW · 38 7 Apr 2021 · 15 MW · 2 8 Apr 2021 · 13 MW · 4 9 Apr 2021 · 18 MW · 4 10 Apr 2021 · 1 MW · 2 11 Apr 2021 · 15 MW · 2 13 Apr 2021 · 14 MW · 2 14 Apr 2021 · 5 MW · 3
19 Mar 23 Mar 29 Mar 2 Apr 3 Apr 7 Apr 11 Apr

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
70km/h · peak gust
39%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.4 mm on 17 Apr.

This area had burned before

36% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,090 ha in 2016, 550 ha in 2017, 1,744 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,994 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 3.5% of the area of London (56 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Arriaga where it started
    3,406 ha reached on 19 Mar
    4.2 %
  2. San Pedro Tapanatepec
    2,238 ha reached on 20 Mar
    2.2 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area2.3 ha
Residents≈ 150

Inside the perimeter there were about 2.3 hectares of built-up land and about 150 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

Official record

Complex of 4 fires according to CONAFOR

According to CONAFOR, 4 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 4,698 ha (the satellite measured 5,611 ha).

CONAFOR records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.

When each one burned

1 645 ha 2 2,534 ha 3 1,340 ha 4 178 ha
20 Mar15 Apr
cause unknown or not published negligence
  1. 1 San Pedro Tapanatepec Bienes Comunales San Pedro Tapanatepec 20 March 2021 645 ha · extinguished on 25 March 2021 · cause: unknown
  2. 2 San Pedro Tapanatepec Bienes Comunales San Pedro Tapanatepec 31 March 2021 2,534 ha · extinguished on 6 April 2021 · cause: unknown
  3. 3 Arriaga Innominado 31 March 2021 1,340 ha · extinguished on 6 April 2021 · cause: negligence
  4. 4 Arriaga El Tablón 11 April 2021 178 ha · extinguished on 16 April 2021 · cause: negligence

Total according to CONAFOR: 4,698 ha, 84 % of the 5,611 ha in the satellite perimeter.

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)
19 Mar 27.0 °C 58 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
20 Mar 27.7 °C 48 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
21 Mar 28.9 °C 48 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
22 Mar 28.9 °C 53 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
23 Mar 28.5 °C 58 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
24 Mar 28.2 °C 60 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 18
25 Mar 28.4 °C 59 % 39 km/h 1.3 mm Low 10
26 Mar 27.7 °C 54 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
27 Mar 29.5 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
28 Mar 29.3 °C 56 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
29 Mar 32.0 °C 39 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
30 Mar 30.5 °C 48 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
31 Mar 31.0 °C 52 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
1 Apr 31.0 °C 44 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Apr 28.9 °C 50 % 70 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Apr 27.9 °C 45 % 65 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Apr 28.1 °C 44 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Apr 29.7 °C 48 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
6 Apr 28.9 °C 56 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
7 Apr 27.8 °C 49 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
8 Apr 29.2 °C 53 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
9 Apr 29.6 °C 60 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 21
10 Apr 27.8 °C 69 % 45 km/h 1.4 mm Low 10
11 Apr 28.3 °C 63 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
12 Apr 29.2 °C 58 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
13 Apr 30.6 °C 49 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
14 Apr 30.8 °C 55 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
15 Apr 30.5 °C 58 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
16 Apr after 29.0 °C 69 % 38 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 18
17 Apr after 27.9 °C 76 % 42 km/h 6.4 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Mar 2021
After · 22 Apr 2021

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 · 434Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mexico ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Arriaga fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 March 2021 to 15 April 2021 (28 days). The perimeter dates it from 26 March 2021 to 8 April 2021. According to CONAFOR, the largest of the 4 recorded fires was detected on 31 March 2021 and declared extinguished on 6 April 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,611 hectares (56.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Arriaga (3,406 ha, 4.2 %); San Pedro Tapanatepec (2,238 ha, 2.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.0 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 70 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 911.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 26 March 2021 to 8 April 2021. 434 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with CONAFOR: 4,698 official ha against 5,611 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.