Centla fire, May 2024 Centla
The fire started on 5 May 2024 in Centla, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,402 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 5 May 2024 and declared extinguished on 9 May 2024.
It is the 3th largest in Tabasco since 2016 (of 40 with a page). Number 64 in Mexico in 2024, of 289.
- Burnt area
- 4,402ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 5 May 2024 – 8 May 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 5 May
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 154
- in a single hotspot: 77 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.8GW
- 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 31 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
31% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,356 ha in 2019, 535 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,370 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
4,430 ha reached on 5 May1.6 %
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 5 May 2024 and burned 5,027 ha (the satellite measured 4,402 ha).
- Centla Tembladeras 2 5 May 2024 5,027 ha · extinguished on 9 May 2024 · 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 May | 36.9 °C | 44 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 6 May | 36.7 °C | 46 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 7 May | 37.6 °C | 47 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 8 May | 37.6 °C | 46 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 9 May after | 39.4 °C | 37 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 10 May after | 36.7 °C | 48 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 11 May after | 35.9 °C | 54 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 12 May after | 36.4 °C | 55 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 13 May after | 38.5 °C | 46 % | 23 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 30 |
| 14 May after | 36.0 °C | 53 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 15 May after | 34.5 °C | 56 % | 31 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 28 |
| 16 May after | 37.5 °C | 48 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 17 May after | 39.4 °C | 40 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 18 May after | 35.8 °C | 55 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 33 |
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 9 May 2024 the air beside the fire reached 84 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 46: 3.1 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 · 154Every 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 5 May 2024 and 8 May 2024: 4 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 5 May 2024 and declared extinguished on 9 May 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,402 hectares (44.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Centla (4,430 ha, 1.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 44 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.