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Copala fire, 23 March 2026 Cuautepec, Copala

Out · last detection 31 Mar 2026, 19:24 UTC

The fire started on 23 March 2026 in Copala, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,208 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 358th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 63 in Mexico in 2026, of 145.

Burnt area
2,208ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
23 Mar 2026 – 30 Mar 2026
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
23 Mar
2026
Heat detections
112
in a single hotspot: 209 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Mar 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Mar30 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

2324252627282931

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
38km/h · peak gust
36%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 13 Apr.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Cuautepec
    1,752 ha reached on 16 Mar
    5.6 %
  2. Copala where it started
    468 ha reached on 18 Mar
    1.6 %

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.

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 Mar 34.1 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Mar 34.7 °C 43 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm High 26
18 Mar 34.7 °C 48 % 36 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 20
19 Mar 35.8 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
20 Mar 35.6 °C 38 % 36 km/h 3.4 mm Moderate 12
21 Mar 33.1 °C 50 % 38 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 17
22 Mar 33.2 °C 50 % 36 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 14
23 Mar 34.5 °C 41 % 35 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 18
24 Mar 34.6 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 20
25 Mar 35.0 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 19
26 Mar 35.3 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.7 mm High 24
27 Mar 34.7 °C 45 % 32 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 20
28 Mar 33.5 °C 45 % 31 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 16
29 Mar 36.4 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.5 mm High 25
30 Mar 36.2 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
31 Mar after 35.4 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
1 Apr after 34.8 °C 46 % 31 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 19
2 Apr after 34.4 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
3 Apr after 35.3 °C 43 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
4 Apr after 35.0 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
5 Apr after 35.4 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
6 Apr after 36.1 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
7 Apr after 35.9 °C 44 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
8 Apr after 35.6 °C 44 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
9 Apr after 36.1 °C 46 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Apr after 36.4 °C 45 % 34 km/h 0.9 mm High 23
11 Apr after 36.3 °C 43 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
12 Apr after 37.3 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 Apr after 37.3 °C 35 % 35 km/h 1.0 mm High 29

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Mar 2026
After · 6 Apr 2026

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 29 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 49 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 32: 2.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak49 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM1050 µg/m³
Optical depth0.52
212223242526272829303112
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 · 112Every 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 Copala fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 March 2026 and 30 March 2026: 8 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 2,208 hectares (22.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cuautepec (1,752 ha, 5.6 %); Copala (468 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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.

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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.