Cedros fire, March 2023 Cedros, Talanga
The fire started on 23 March 2023 in Cedros, Honduras, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,100 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 30th largest in Francisco Morazán since 2016 (of 177 with a page). Number 14 in Honduras in 2023, of 149.
- Burnt area
- 3,100ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 23 Mar 2023 – 2 Apr 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 23 Mar
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 107
- in a single hotspot: 36 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 503MW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 9 Apr.
This area had burned before
83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,050 ha in 2017, 917 ha in 2019, 1,899 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,587 ha that had burned before.
- 1,899 ha Cedros fire, March 2020 16,093 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 934 ha Cedros fire, April 2017 1,230 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 917 ha Cedros fire, March 2019 1,147 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 116 ha Cedros fire, March 2017 2,160 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Cedros where it started2,253 ha reached on 23 Mar2.9 %
-
864 ha reached on 24 Mar2.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Mar | 28.9 °C | 39 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 24 Mar | 28.1 °C | 45 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 25 Mar | 31.7 °C | 31 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 26 Mar | 31.0 °C | 31 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 27 Mar | 32.6 °C | 25 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 28 Mar | 32.3 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 29 Mar | 32.7 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 30 Mar | 27.7 °C | 42 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 31 Mar | 30.4 °C | 33 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 1 Apr | 30.3 °C | 34 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 2 Apr | 31.5 °C | 24 % | 43 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 28 |
| 3 Apr after | 31.9 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 28 |
| 4 Apr after | 32.1 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 5 Apr after | 33.0 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Apr after | 32.4 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 7 Apr after | 33.0 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 8 Apr after | 32.1 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 33 |
| 9 Apr after | 30.1 °C | 35 % | 36 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 18 |
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 5 April 2023 the air beside the fire reached 54 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.7 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 · 107Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 16,093 haCedros25 March 2020 · 37 days · 10 km away
- 7,933 haCedros23 March 2020 · 39 days · 21 km away
- 7,183 haCedros15 March 2020 · 38 days · 26 km away
- 6,045 haGuaimaca3 April 2023 · 17 days · 28 km away
- 6,933 haGuaimaca14 May 2026 · 10 days · 30 km away
- 22,862 haCedros21 March 2020 · 41 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cedros fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 March 2023 and 2 April 2023: 11 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 3,100 hectares (31.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cedros (2,253 ha, 2.9 %); Talanga (864 ha, 2.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Honduras (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 International (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.