Centla fire, 19 June 2023 Centla, Jonuta
The fire started on 19 June 2023 in Centla, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,640 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Tabasco since 2016 (of 40 with a page). Number 12 in Mexico in 2023, of 286.
- Burnt area
- 9,640ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 19 Jun 2023 – 23 Jun 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 19 Jun
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 313
- in a single hotspot: 147 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.6GW
- 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 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 23.9 mm on 24 Jun.
This area had burned before
58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 821 ha in 2016, 4,838 ha in 2019, 1,046 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,578 ha that had burned before.
- 1,228 ha Centla fire, May 2019 1,876 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 994 ha Jonuta fire, May 2019 3,087 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 274 ha Centla fire, August 2019 2,771 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 172 ha Centla fire, May 2016 1,895 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 110 ha Centla fire, April 2021 5,481 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 93 ha Centla fire, April 2019 1,660 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
9,069 ha reached on 18 Jun3.4 %
-
623 ha reached on 18 Jun0.4 %
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 18 June 2023 and burned 12,055 ha (the satellite measured 9,640 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
- Centla Lázaro Cárdenas 2 18 June 2023 12,055 ha · extinguished on 25 June 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Jun | 39.6 °C | 34 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Jun | 39.5 °C | 32 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 20 Jun | 39.3 °C | 37 % | 39 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very high 39 |
| 21 Jun | 38.4 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 22 Jun | 39.1 °C | 37 % | 44 km/h | 3.1 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 23 Jun | 36.5 °C | 44 % | 31 km/h | 15.2 mm | Very low 5 |
| 24 Jun after | 31.1 °C | 65 % | 23 km/h | 23.9 mm | Very low 0 |
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 24 June 2023 the air beside the fire reached 143 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 62: 4.2 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 · 313Every 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 Centla fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 June 2023 and 23 June 2023: 5 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 9,640 hectares (96.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Centla (9,069 ha, 3.4 %); Jonuta (623 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.6 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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
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.