Calkiní fire, May 2023 Calkiní
The fire started on 4 May 2023 in Calkiní, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,685 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 4 May 2023 and declared extinguished on 7 May 2023.
It is the 97th largest in Campeche since 2016 (of 138 with a page). Number 243 in Mexico in 2023, of 286.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 1,685ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 4 May 2023 – 6 May 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 4 May
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 40
- in a single hotspot: 38 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 170MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 45 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 11 May.
This area had burned before
46% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 618 ha in 2017, 344 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 767 ha that had burned before.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Calkiní where it started1,692 ha0.8 %
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 4 May 2023 and burned 1,366 ha (the satellite measured 1,685 ha).
- Calkiní Santa Maria 4 May 2023 1,366 ha · extinguished on 7 May 2023 · cause: negligence
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 May | 38.2 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 May | 39.7 °C | 29 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 6 May | 38.7 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 7 May after | 38.4 °C | 32 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 8 May after | 37.7 °C | 34 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 9 May after | 37.3 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 10 May after | 38.1 °C | 31 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 11 May after | 39.0 °C | 34 % | 46 km/h | 1.1 mm | Very high 39 |
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 3 May 2023 the air beside the fire reached 33 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.5 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 · 40Every 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 Calkiní fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 May 2023 and 6 May 2023: 3 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 4 May 2023 and declared extinguished on 7 May 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,685 hectares (16.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Calkiní (1,692 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.7 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 40 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with CONAFOR: 1,366 official ha against 1,685 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.