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Bavispe fire, April 2025 Bavispe

Out · last detection 1 May 2025, 20:25 UTC

The fire started on 12 April 2025 in Bavispe, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,961 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 32th largest in Sonora since 2016 (of 93 with a page). Number 32 in Mexico in 2025, of 167.

Burnt area
4,961ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
19days
12 Apr 2025 – 30 Apr 2025
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
12 Apr
2025
Heat detections
559
in a single hotspot: 170 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
6.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 May 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Apr30 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

121314151617181920212223242526272829301

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
84km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

It had gone 26 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 60 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Bavispe where it started
    4,979 ha reached on 11 Apr
    2.9 %

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)
11 Apr 31.7 °C 5 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Apr 30.4 °C 6 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Apr 27.4 °C 10 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Apr 26.8 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Apr 28.9 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Apr 28.5 °C 8 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
17 Apr 25.2 °C 11 % 84 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
18 Apr 19.5 °C 13 % 71 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
19 Apr 17.8 °C 15 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Apr 23.0 °C 6 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Apr 25.6 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Apr 25.8 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Apr 25.8 °C 8 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Apr 26.2 °C 7 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Apr 25.9 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
26 Apr 26.9 °C 8 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
27 Apr 24.6 °C 6 % 74 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
28 Apr 23.6 °C 8 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
29 Apr 23.7 °C 8 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
30 Apr 24.2 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 May after 25.8 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 May after 25.2 °C 7 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
3 May after 25.5 °C 8 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
4 May after 22.5 °C 15 % 74 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
5 May after 16.2 °C 27 % 66 km/h 1.1 mm High 29
6 May after 19.3 °C 19 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 May after 23.4 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
8 May after 26.1 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 May after 26.6 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
10 May after 26.5 °C 12 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
11 May after 29.4 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 May after 29.3 °C 14 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 May after 27.6 °C 15 % 68 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
14 May after 24.2 °C 10 % 69 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
15 May after 26.4 °C 9 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Apr 2025
After · 7 May 2025

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 22 April 2025 the air beside the fire reached 43 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak43 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1046 µg/m³
Optical depth0.23
910111213141516171819202122232425262728293012345678
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 · 559Every 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 Bavispe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 April 2025 and 30 April 2025: 19 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 4,961 hectares (49.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bavispe (4,979 ha, 2.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.7 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 84 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 74, class Very 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
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.