Cohetzala fire, March 2021 Cohetzala, Copalillo, Atenango del Río
The fire started on 20 March 2021 in Cohetzala, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,699 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Puebla since 2016 (of 18 with a page). Number 18 in Mexico in 2021, of 295.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 7,699ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 20 Mar 2021 – 4 Apr 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- municipalities
- Started on
- 20 Mar
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 303
- in a single hotspot: 75 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 143MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,470 ha in 2016, 4,897 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,805 ha that had burned before.
- 4,825 ha Atenango del Río fire, March 2019 7,726 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,260 ha Ixcamilpa de Guerrero fire, April 2016 3,998 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,210 ha Atenango del Río fire, February 2016 4,273 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 72 ha Copalillo fire, March 2019 2,620 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
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.
What happened to each town
-
Cohetzala where it started2,399 ha reached on 21 Mar9.9 %
-
2,052 ha reached on 23 Mar2.8 %
-
1,676 ha reached on 20 Mar3.0 %
-
1,614 ha reached on 27 Mar5.2 %
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.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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.
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
Several official records match this area
According to CONAFOR, 3 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 3,598 ha (the satellite measured 7,699 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
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.
When each one burned
1 1,257 ha 2 415 ha 3 1,926 ha- 1 Cohetzala Santa Monica/Tecaballo 21 March 2021 1,257 ha · extinguished on 7 April 2021 · cause: arson
- 2 Copalillo Bienes comunales Mezquitlan 25 March 2021 415 ha · extinguished on 31 March 2021 · cause: unknown
- 3 Copalillo Bienes Comunales de Mezquitlan 29 March 2021 1,926 ha · extinguished on 5 April 2021 · cause: negligence
Total according to CONAFOR: 3,598 ha, 47 % of the 7,699 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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Mar | 31.2 °C | 18 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 21 Mar | 31.5 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 22 Mar | 30.6 °C | 21 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 23 Mar | 31.6 °C | 15 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 24 Mar | 31.8 °C | 15 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 25 Mar | 32.2 °C | 12 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 26 Mar | 31.6 °C | 17 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 27 Mar | 31.4 °C | 20 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 28 Mar | 33.2 °C | 12 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 29 Mar | 31.0 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 30 Mar | 31.5 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 31 Mar | 31.7 °C | 18 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 1 Apr | 30.5 °C | 12 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 2 Apr | 30.3 °C | 20 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 3 Apr | 30.4 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 4 Apr | 31.1 °C | 12 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 5 Apr after | 29.9 °C | 17 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 6 Apr after | 29.5 °C | 21 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 7 Apr after | 31.9 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 8 Apr after | 32.5 °C | 15 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 9 Apr after | 33.2 °C | 15 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 10 Apr after | 33.6 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 11 Apr after | 34.2 °C | 16 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 12 Apr after | 34.3 °C | 18 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 13 Apr after | 35.2 °C | 16 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 14 Apr after | 34.8 °C | 12 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
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.
Detections table · 303Every 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 Cohetzala fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 March 2021 to 4 April 2021 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 March 2021 to 4 April 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,699 hectares (77.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Cohetzala (2,399 ha, 9.9 %); Copalillo (2,052 ha, 2.8 %); Atenango del Río (1,676 ha, 3.0 %); Ixcamilpa de Guerrero (1,614 ha, 5.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
- 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Start date: 22 March 2021 → 20 March 2021.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 22 March 2021 to 4 April 2021. 303 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with CONAFOR: 3,598 official ha against 7,699 ha of perimeter; similar, but with reservations.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.