Carmen fire, 17 May 2026 Carmen
The fire started on 17 May 2026 in Carmen, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,082 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
Number 4 in Mexico in 2026, of 145.
- Burnt area
- 8,082ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 17 May 2026 – 22 May 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 17 May
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 263
- in a single hotspot: 116 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.3GW
- sum of detected power
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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 24 May.
This area had burned before
89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,293 ha in 2016, 4,184 ha in 2020, 4,103 ha in 2021, 4,063 ha in 2023, 3,101 ha in 2024, 2,819 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,179 ha that had burned before.
- 4,293 ha Carmen fire, May 2016 6,163 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,103 ha Carmen fire, April 2021 4,917 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,063 ha Carmen fire, May 2023 5,365 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,101 ha Carmen fire, April 2024 4,643 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,385 ha Carmen fire, May 2025 2,873 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,198 ha Carmen fire, May 2020 2,730 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
8,122 ha reached on 17 May0.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 May | 36.7 °C | 43 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 18 May | 37.5 °C | 42 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 19 May | 36.6 °C | 46 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 20 May | 35.8 °C | 46 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 21 May | 36.9 °C | 40 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 22 May | 36.0 °C | 42 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 23 May after | 37.0 °C | 46 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 24 May after | 35.2 °C | 51 % | 38 km/h | 1.2 mm | High 23 |
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 19 May 2026 the air beside the fire reached 51 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.6 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 · 263Every 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 Carmen fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 May 2026 and 22 May 2026: 6 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 8,082 hectares (80.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Carmen (8,122 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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
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
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.