The fire started on 9 May 2024 in Cintalapa, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,687 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities. According to CONAFOR, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 9 May 2024 and declared extinguished on 18 May 2024.
It is the 207th largest in Chiapas since 2016 (of 246 with a page). Number 246 in Mexico in 2024, of 289.
The power measured by the satellite is low (28.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
CONAFOR: 1,386 ha (matched records: 2). Difference between the page and the official record: +21.8%. Matched on 8 November 2026.
9 May 2024 to 17 May 2024: first and last day with fire on the page.
CONAFOR declared the fire extinguished on 18 May 2024. Satellites may still see smouldering spots afterwards.
Alert according to CONAFOR: 9 May 2024. Official cause: unknown.
First day with fire on the page (satellite or perimeter): 9 May 2024.
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 29 MW.
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
Total radiative power on 10 May 2024; hotspots that day: 16.
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 7.
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
High of 31.1 °C and minimum humidity of 38% on 11 May 2024; gusts of 59 km/h on 17 May 2024.
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-05-09 | 6 | 91 | 29.3 | 17 | 43 | 14.2 | 47.2 | 0 | 27.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-05-10 | 16 | 130 | 29.2 | 17.3 | 39 | 14.4 | 46.4 | 0 | 29.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-05-11 | 14 | 35 | 31.1 | 17.1 | 38 | 10.3 | 36.4 | 0 | 27 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-05-12 | 2 | 14 | 30.8 | 19 | 40 | 14.5 | 46.1 | 0 | 32.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-05-13 | 12 | 37 | 30.2 | 19.6 | 47 | 18.5 | 56.9 | 0.4 | 35 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-05-14 | 10 | 42 | 29.5 | 19.5 | 49 | 14.9 | 46.4 | 2.6 | 11 | bajo | 1 |
| 2024-05-15 | 9 | 48 | 28.9 | 18.8 | 51 | 11.9 | 40.3 | 0.3 | 17.4 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-05-16 | 11 | 29 | 29.5 | 19.3 | 51 | 16.6 | 47.2 | 0.3 | 24.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-05-17 | 0 | 0 | 27.9 | 19.5 | 58 | 20.5 | 59 | 6.1 | 11.9 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-05-18 | 0 | 0 | 26.8 | 19.8 | 64 | 11.3 | 33.5 | 1.8 | 2.9 | muy_bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), CONAFOR, ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 18 May.
71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 898 ha in 2016, 1,188 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,193 ha that had burned before.
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.
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
According to CONAFOR, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 1,386 ha (the satellite measured 1,687 ha).
CONAFOR records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.
Total according to CONAFOR: 1,386 ha, 82 % of the 1,687 ha in the satellite perimeter.
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 May | 29.3 °C | 43 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 10 May | 29.2 °C | 39 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 11 May | 31.1 °C | 38 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 12 May | 30.8 °C | 40 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 13 May | 30.2 °C | 47 % | 57 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 35 |
| 14 May | 29.5 °C | 49 % | 46 km/h | 2.6 mm | Low 11 |
| 15 May | 28.9 °C | 51 % | 40 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 16 May | 29.5 °C | 51 % | 47 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 25 |
| 17 May | 27.9 °C | 58 % | 59 km/h | 6.1 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 18 May after | 26.8 °C | 64 % | 34 km/h | 1.8 mm | Very low 3 |
It started with an FWI of 27.8, a minimum humidity of 43% and 7 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 33.
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.2 mm on 24 May.
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.5 mm on 25 May.
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.9 mm on 28 Apr.
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.1 mm on 29 Mar.
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
It burned an area similar to its twins (1,687 ha against a median of 2,186 ha) and lasted 9 days, against 9 days.
In 6 of 33, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.5 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
It was considered over on 17 May, and on 18 May 1.8 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 27 of 33, with a median of 2.5 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
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.
On 20 May 2024 the air beside the fire reached 63 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 41: 2.7 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)
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
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 · Emergency number and official warnings
Satellite cross-check
No changes since 24 October 2026.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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.
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.