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MX · Mexico · –

Del Nayar fire, 22 April 2024 Del Nayar, Mezquital

Out · last detection 5 May 2024, 19:51 UTC

The fire started on 22 April 2024 in Del Nayar, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,675 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 70th largest in Nayarit since 2016 (of 171 with a page). Number 125 in Mexico in 2024, of 289.

The power measured by the satellite is low (12.7 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
2,675ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
22 Apr 2024 – 5 May 2024
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
22 Apr
2024
Heat detections
118
in a single hotspot: 13 MW
Danger at start
58
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
36MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Apr5 May
5 May 2024

How it evolved, day by day

22 Apr 2024 · 133 MW · 21 23 Apr 2024 · 104 MW · 24 24 Apr 2024 · 14 MW · 11 25 Apr 2024 · 57 MW · 20 26 Apr 2024 · 2 MW · 1 27 Apr 2024 · 4 MW · 2 28 Apr 2024 · 1 MW · 1 29 Apr 2024 · 34 MW · 12 30 Apr 2024 · 37 MW · 23 3 May 2024 · 1 MW · 1 5 May 2024 · 8 MW · 2
22 Apr 25 Apr 28 Apr 3 May

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
52km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,161 ha in 2017, 44 ha in 2018, 1,666 ha in 2019, 2,558 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,626 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.7% of the area of London (27 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Del Nayar where it started
    2,623 ha reached on 22 Apr
    0.5 %
  2. 70 ha reached on 23 Apr
    0.0 %

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 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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

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)

Started with Extreme FWI: 19 % of the area in Mexico Very dry air: 21 % of the area in Mexico 60 days without rain: 25 % of the area in Mexico

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
22 Apr 32.1 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Apr 31.7 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 Apr 32.1 °C 16 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
25 Apr 31.1 °C 19 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
26 Apr 28.8 °C 24 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Apr 28.8 °C 17 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Apr 29.5 °C 12 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
29 Apr 30.5 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Apr 31.0 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
1 May 29.4 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
2 May 30.7 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 May 32.3 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 May 31.1 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
5 May 33.5 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 May after 30.2 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 May after 30.6 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 May after 34.5 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
9 May after 35.2 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
10 May after 35.5 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 May after 33.2 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 May after 30.7 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 May after 30.1 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
14 May after 30.8 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
15 May after 31.0 °C 28 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 57.9, a minimum humidity of 11% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 17.

FWI at the start 57.9
Minimum humidity 11 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Mezquital fire, May 2019
2,187 ha 11 days FWI 60.6 Min. humidity 11 % 50 km away, in 2019

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.2 mm on 27 May.

What happened to them

11 days
median duration
2,861 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
1.8 mm
rain at the end (median; 10 of 17 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (2,675 ha against a median of 2,861 ha) and lasted 14 days, against 11 days.

In 7 of 17, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.8 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
52km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 5 May, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 10 of 17, with a median of 1.8 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Apr 2024
After · 12 May 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 26 April 2024 the air beside the fire reached 12 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak12 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1018 µg/m³
Optical depth0.18
20 Apr23 Apr26 Apr29 Apr2 May
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 · 118Every 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 Del Nayar fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 22 April 2024 to 5 May 2024 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 April 2024 to 30 April 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,675 hectares (26.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Del Nayar (2,623 ha, 0.5 %); Mezquital (70 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 17. Their median duration was 11 days and their median area 2,861 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 7 of 17, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.8 mm.

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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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.

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 April 2024 to 30 April 2024. 118 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • 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 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.