How long did the Talpa de Allende fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 April 2023 to 14 May 2023 (26 days). The perimeter dates it from 26 April 2023 to 7 May 2023.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 12,266 hectares (122.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Talpa de Allende (11,581 ha, 5.8 %); Cabo Corrientes (754 ha, 0.5 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 24.7 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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.

MX · Mexico · 2023-04-19 → 2023-05-14

Talpa de Allende fire, 19 April 2023 Talpa de Allende, Cabo Corrientes

Out · last detection 14 May 2023, 08:34 UTC

The fire started on 19 April 2023 in Talpa de Allende, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,266 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 11th largest in Jalisco since 2016 (of 283 with a page). Number 7 in Mexico in 2023, of 285.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Talpa de Allende · 2019 Talpa de Allende · 2020 Talpa de Allende · 2021 Talpa de Allende · 2023

Burnt area: 12,266ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 26days; 19 Apr 2023 – 14 May 2023
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 19 Apr; 2023
Heat detections: 715; in a single hotspot: 143 MW
Danger at start: 19; Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power: 342MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Apr14 May

Play back 14 May 2023

How it evolved, day by day

22 Apr 26 Apr 29 Apr 1 May 2 May 5 May 10 May

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

The weather it burned in

25°high

38km/h · peak gust

19%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 16 May.

This area had burned before

53% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,132 ha in 2017, 3,756 ha in 2019, 1,713 ha in 2020, 1,451 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,518 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 7.7% of the area of London (123 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

Talpa de Allende where it started

11,581 ha reached on 22 Apr

5.8 %
Cabo Corrientes

754 ha reached on 22 Apr

0.5 %

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 2025

Built-up area0.90 ha

Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.90 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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

Several official records match this area

According to CONAFOR, 3 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 9,103 ha (the satellite measured 12,266 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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 96 ha 2 2,230 ha 3 6,776 ha

22 Apr5 May

arson

1 Talpa de Allende La Mesa De Reparo 22 April 2023 96 ha · extinguished on 24 April 2023 · cause: arson
2 Talpa de Allende La Curva Del Agua 24 April 2023 2,230 ha · extinguished on 30 April 2023 · cause: arson
3 Talpa de Allende El Cantón 29 April 2023 6,776 ha · extinguished on 6 May 2023 · cause: arson

Total according to CONAFOR: 9,103 ha, 74 % of the 12,266 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 Apr	21.1 °C	45 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
20 Apr	21.4 °C	40 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
21 Apr	21.8 °C	41 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
22 Apr	22.2 °C	38 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
23 Apr	21.5 °C	39 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
24 Apr	21.5 °C	41 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
25 Apr	20.7 °C	37 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
26 Apr	21.3 °C	32 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
27 Apr	21.6 °C	38 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
28 Apr	21.1 °C	39 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
29 Apr	20.8 °C	38 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
30 Apr	20.7 °C	49 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
1 May	20.9 °C	25 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
2 May	21.7 °C	19 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
3 May	22.1 °C	30 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
4 May	22.8 °C	38 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
5 May	23.4 °C	41 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
6 May	23.9 °C	34 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
7 May	24.3 °C	35 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
8 May	24.6 °C	28 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
9 May	24.0 °C	32 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
10 May	24.7 °C	30 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
11 May	24.3 °C	31 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
12 May	22.8 °C	31 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
13 May	22.4 °C	37 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
14 May	23.1 °C	35 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
15 May after	22.9 °C	41 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
16 May after	23.7 °C	45 %	39 km/h	1.5 mm	Low 11

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 12 Apr 2023

After · 21 May 2023

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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 4 May 2023 the air beside the fire reached 169 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 110: 7.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak169 µg/m³

Days over the guideline8 days

PM10242 µg/m³

Optical depth1.23

WHO 15

2425262728293012345678910

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 · 715Every 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 Talpa de Allende fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 April 2023 to 14 May 2023 (26 days). The perimeter dates it from 26 April 2023 to 7 May 2023.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 12,266 hectares (122.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Talpa de Allende (11,581 ha, 5.8 %); Cabo Corrientes (754 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 24.7 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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 ›

CONAFOR · Comisión Nacional Forestal ↗
CENAPRED ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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

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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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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 April 2023 to 7 May 2023. 715 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with CONAFOR: 9,103 official ha against 12,266 ha of perimeter; similar, but with reservations.
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 2025, 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.

Where it burned