Cotija fire, April 2025 Cotija, Tocumbo
The fire started on 29 April 2025 in Cotija, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,915 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 13th largest in Michoacan de Ocampo since 2016 (of 111 with a page). Number 45 in Mexico in 2025, of 167.
- Burnt area
- 3,915ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 29 Apr 2025 – 8 May 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 29 Apr
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 296
- in a single hotspot: 107 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.8GW
- sum of detected power
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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.3 mm on 18 May.
This area had burned before
4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 54 ha in 2022, 94 ha in 2024.
What happened to each town
-
Cotija where it started2,720 ha reached on 29 Apr5.4 %
-
1,215 ha reached on 3 May2.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Apr | 26.0 °C | 29 % | 43 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 35 |
| 30 Apr | 27.7 °C | 25 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 1 May | 29.3 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 2 May | 27.3 °C | 22 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 3 May | 28.9 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 4 May | 27.0 °C | 25 % | 45 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 May | 26.2 °C | 29 % | 46 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 38 |
| 6 May | 25.8 °C | 27 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 7 May | 28.0 °C | 24 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 8 May | 28.9 °C | 23 % | 48 km/h | 1.2 mm | High 31 |
| 9 May after | 30.7 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 10 May after | 26.3 °C | 27 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 11 May after | 25.6 °C | 30 % | 22 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 31 |
| 12 May after | 26.4 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 13 May after | 28.8 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 34 |
| 14 May after | 29.5 °C | 25 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 15 May after | 30.8 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 38 |
| 16 May after | 28.9 °C | 28 % | 42 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 33 |
| 17 May after | 29.2 °C | 29 % | 42 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 29 |
| 18 May after | 26.6 °C | 39 % | 39 km/h | 3.3 mm | Low 8 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 14 May 2025 the air beside the fire reached 46 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 31: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 296Every 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 Cotija fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 April 2025 and 8 May 2025: 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 3,915 hectares (39.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cotija (2,720 ha, 5.4 %); Tocumbo (1,215 ha, 2.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.7 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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
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.