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Coeneo fire, May 2024 Coeneo

Out · last detection 13 May 2024, 07:48 UTC

The fire started on 8 May 2024 in Coeneo, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,554 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 9 May 2024 and declared extinguished on 14 May 2024.

It is the 98th largest in Michoacan de Ocampo since 2016 (of 111 with a page). Number 277 in Mexico in 2024, of 289.

The power measured by the satellite is low (12.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,554ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
8 May 2024 – 13 May 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
8 May
2024
Heat detections
81
in a single hotspot: 13 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
171MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 May 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 May13 May

How it evolved, day by day

8910111213

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

33°high
42km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 22 May.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 736 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Coeneo where it started
    1,563 ha reached on 7 May
    3.9 %

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.

Official record

According to CONAFOR, this fire started on 9 May 2024 and burned 1,253 ha (the satellite measured 1,554 ha).

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)
8 May 31.1 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 May 32.8 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 May 33.4 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
11 May 32.4 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 45
12 May 31.1 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 47
13 May 30.1 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 May after 30.4 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 41
15 May after 30.3 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 43
16 May after 30.6 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 May after 31.8 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 May after 32.1 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 May after 32.5 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 May after 31.7 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 May after 33.1 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 43
22 May after 31.3 °C 24 % 32 km/h 1.6 mm High 22

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 1 May 2024
After · 20 May 2024

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 · Copernicus

On 9 May 2024 the air beside the fire reached 32 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak32 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM1047 µg/m³
Optical depth1.08
678910111213141516
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 81Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mexico ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Coeneo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 May 2024 and 13 May 2024: 6 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 9 May 2024 and declared extinguished on 14 May 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,554 hectares (15.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Coeneo (1,563 ha, 3.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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
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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 911.

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.