Skip to content
worldfires
MX · Mexico · →

Compostela fire, 20 May 2024 Compostela

Out · last detection 27 May 2024, 19:38 UTC

The fire started on 20 May 2024 in Compostela, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,170 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 98th largest in Nayarit since 2016 (of 179 with a page). Number 165 in Mexico in 2024, of 289.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.0 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
2,170ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
20 May 2024 – 28 May 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
20 May
2024
Heat detections
188
in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Energy released
864MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 May 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 May28 May

How it evolved, day by day

2021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
40km/h · peak gust
37%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 152 ha in 2023.

What happened to each town

  1. Compostela where it started
    2,179 ha reached on 16 May
    1.2 %

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 19 May 2024 and burned 1,216 ha (the satellite measured 2,170 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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)
16 May 26.1 °C 43 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
17 May 25.9 °C 46 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
18 May 25.5 °C 46 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
19 May 27.7 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
20 May 26.9 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
21 May 27.3 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
22 May 26.8 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 May 27.4 °C 38 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
24 May 27.7 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
25 May 27.9 °C 42 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
26 May 26.4 °C 46 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
27 May 27.5 °C 48 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
28 May 27.0 °C 52 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
29 May after 28.2 °C 45 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
30 May after 28.0 °C 47 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
31 May after 28.3 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
1 Jun after 28.3 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
2 Jun after 28.2 °C 45 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
3 Jun after 27.0 °C 48 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
4 Jun after 27.4 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
5 Jun after 25.8 °C 48 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
6 Jun after 26.1 °C 54 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
7 Jun after 24.7 °C 59 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 May 2024
After · 4 Jun 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 28 May 2024 the air beside the fire reached 25 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak25 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1036 µg/m³
Optical depth0.49
1819202122232425262728293031
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 · 188Every 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 Compostela fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 May 2024 and 28 May 2024: 9 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 2,170 hectares (21.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Compostela (2,179 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.9 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, class 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
What do you think is wrong?

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.