How long did the Compostela fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 May 2024 and 30 May 2024: 10 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 2,030 hectares (20.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Compostela (2,039 ha, 1.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 29.8 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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.

MX · Mexico · 2024-05-21 → 2024-05-30

Compostela fire, 21 May 2024 Compostela

Out · last detection 29 May 2024, 20:40 UTC

The fire started on 21 May 2024 in Compostela, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,030 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 117th largest in Nayarit since 2016 (of 179 with a page). Number 187 in Mexico in 2024, of 289.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.9 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: 2,030ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 10days; 21 May 2024 – 30 May 2024
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 21 May; 2024
Heat detections: 101; in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start: 26; High · FWI index
Energy released: 524MW; sum of detected power

Play back 29 May 2024

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 May30 May

How it evolved, day by day

212223242526272829

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

The weather it burned in

30°high

42km/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

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Compostela where it started

2,039 ha reached on 21 May

1.1 %

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 23 May 2024 and burned 1,444 ha (the satellite measured 2,030 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

Compostela Las Cebollitas 23 May 2024 1,444 ha · extinguished on 4 June 2024 · cause: unknown

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)
21 May	28.9 °C	37 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
22 May	28.4 °C	39 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
23 May	29.0 °C	39 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
24 May	29.3 °C	40 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
25 May	29.5 °C	43 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
26 May	28.0 °C	46 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
27 May	29.1 °C	49 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
28 May	28.6 °C	53 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
29 May	29.8 °C	46 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
30 May	29.6 °C	47 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
31 May after	29.9 °C	43 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
1 Jun after	29.9 °C	35 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
2 Jun after	29.8 °C	46 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
3 Jun after	28.6 °C	49 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
4 Jun after	29.0 °C	43 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
5 Jun after	27.4 °C	49 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
6 Jun after	27.7 °C	54 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
7 Jun after	26.3 °C	59 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
8 Jun after	25.6 °C	67 %	30 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 16
9 Jun after	27.7 °C	55 %	34 km/h	0.7 mm	Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 14 May 2024

After · 6 Jun 2024

Before After

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 31 May 2024 the air beside the fire reached 62 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 40: 2.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak62 µg/m³

Days over the guideline8 days

PM1089 µg/m³

Optical depth0.49

WHO 15

1920212223242526272829303112

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 · 101Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mexico ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Compostela fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 May 2024 and 30 May 2024: 10 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 2,030 hectares (20.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Compostela (2,039 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 29.8 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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

CONAFOR · Comisión Nacional Forestal ↗
CENAPRED ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned