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Atlixtac fire, March 2024 Ahuacuotzingo, Atlixtac

Out · last detection 1 Apr 2024, 07:36 UTC

The fire started on 25 March 2024 in Atlixtac, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,820 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 252th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 116 in Mexico in 2024, of 289.

Burnt area
2,820ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
25 Mar 2024 – 1 Apr 2024
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
25 Mar
2024
Heat detections
107
in a single hotspot: 36 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
522MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Apr 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Mar1 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

252627282930311

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
58km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,467 ha in 2019, 918 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,176 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ahuacuotzingo
    1,492 ha reached on 27 Mar
    1.7 %
  2. Atlixtac where it started
    1,344 ha reached on 25 Mar
    2.3 %

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 25 March 2024 and burned 1,307 ha (the satellite measured 2,820 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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)
25 Mar 29.7 °C 17 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Mar 30.1 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Mar 32.1 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Mar 30.6 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Mar 30.4 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Mar 30.6 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
31 Mar 30.2 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Apr 31.1 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Apr after 31.4 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Apr after 31.3 °C 25 % 58 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 44
4 Apr after 29.1 °C 28 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Apr after 30.2 °C 24 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Apr after 31.1 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Apr after 31.5 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Apr after 31.1 °C 24 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Apr after 30.9 °C 24 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Apr after 30.6 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Apr after 29.6 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
12 Apr after 31.0 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Apr after 33.0 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
14 Apr after 32.0 °C 20 % 45 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.

Before · 18 Mar 2024
After · 8 Apr 2024

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 · Copernicus

On 29 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 19 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak19 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1028 µg/m³
Optical depth0.44
2324252627282930311234
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 107Every 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 Atlixtac fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 March 2024 and 1 April 2024: 8 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 2,820 hectares (28.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ahuacuotzingo (1,492 ha, 1.7 %); Atlixtac (1,344 ha, 2.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.1 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 58 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
What do you think is wrong?

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.

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.