The fire started on 24 May 2024 in Del Nayar, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,488 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 38th largest in Nayarit since 2016 (of 171 with a page). Number 60 in Mexico in 2024, of 289.
matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Burned area
with caveats
4,488ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
This page4,488CONAFOR2,679
Source
GWIS (Copernicus)
Date
24 May 2024 – 6 Jun 2024
+− cross-check
CONAFOR: 2,679 ha (matched records: 1). Difference between the page and the official record: +67.5%. Matched on 8 November 2026. The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
Duration by satellite
satellite only
14days
24 May 2024 to 6 Jun 2024: first and last day with fire on the page.
Source
GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
last detection: 6 Jun 2024, 08:37 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only
24 May 2024
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
Source
GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
24 May 2024
+− cross-check
The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
Hotspots
satellite only
300
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 43 MW.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP + NOAA-20)
Date
24 May 2024 – 6 Jun 2024
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only
524MW
Total radiative power on 25 May 2024; hotspots that day: 42.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
Date
25 May 2024
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model
41.6FWI · very high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 52.
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings ›
Weather during the fire
model
33.5°C · 27% RH
High of 33.5 °C and minimum humidity of 27% on 29 May 2024; gusts of 48 km/h on 24 May 2024.
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
ⓘThis page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
· reconstructedofficial
Matched with the official CONAFOR record
Nearby records with very different figures: 2,679 ha (records: 1).
A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
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
48km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity
It had gone 52 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 7 Jun.
This area had burned before
83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,544 ha in 2016, 514 ha in 2017, 147 ha in 2019, 2,196 ha in 2020, 1,176 ha in 2021, 1,098 ha in 2022, 58 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,725 ha that had burned before.
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 area0.13ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there were about 0.13 hectares of 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.
According to CONAFOR, this fire started on 26 May 2024 and burned 2,679 ha (the satellite measured 4,488 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
Del NayarEl Coyote26 May 20242,679 ha· extinguished on 2 June 2024· cause: unknown
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)
24 May
32.9 °C
27 %
48 km/h
0.0 mm
Very high 42
25 May
32.9 °C
28 %
44 km/h
0.0 mm
Very high 41
26 May
31.8 °C
31 %
43 km/h
0.0 mm
Very high 41
27 May
32.2 °C
34 %
38 km/h
0.0 mm
High 37
28 May
31.7 °C
31 %
44 km/h
0.5 mm
Very high 40
29 May
33.5 °C
27 %
40 km/h
0.0 mm
Very high 40
30 May
32.2 °C
29 %
43 km/h
0.0 mm
Very high 43
31 May
32.9 °C
30 %
43 km/h
0.0 mm
Very high 40
1 Jun
32.1 °C
34 %
45 km/h
0.0 mm
Very high 40
2 Jun
32.0 °C
31 %
47 km/h
0.1 mm
Very high 40
3 Jun
31.8 °C
31 %
45 km/h
0.0 mm
Very high 41
4 Jun
31.9 °C
31 %
41 km/h
0.0 mm
Very high 41
5 Jun
31.9 °C
31 %
38 km/h
0.0 mm
Very high 40
6 Jun
32.6 °C
37 %
37 km/h
1.2 mm
Very high 39
7 Jun after
29.0 °C
47 %
38 km/h
1.9 mm
High 22
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 41.6, a minimum humidity of 27% and 52 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 33.
FWI at the start41.6
Minimum humidity27 %
Days without rain52
this firechosen twinsrest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Del Nayar fire, 24 May 2024
4,488 ha14 daysFWI 41.6Min. humidity 27 %
San Ignacio fire, April 2021
5,866 ha13 daysFWI 40.8Min. humidity 27 %207 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
It burned an area similar to its twins (4,488 ha against a median of 4,352 ha) and lasted 14 days, against 15 days.
In 17 of 33, 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 1.9 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
1.9 mmfirst rain
7 Junthe day after it ended
48km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 6 Jun, and on 7 Jun 1.9 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 16 of 33, with a median of 1.9 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.
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 17 May 2024
After · 13 Jun 2024
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 23 May 2024 the air beside the fire reached 50 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 30: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak50µg/m³
Days over the guideline7days
PM1072µg/m³
Optical depth0.59
WHO 15
23 May26 May29 May1 Jun
GoodFairModeratePoorVery poorExtremely 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· 300Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.›
⬇ Download CSVTimes in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 24 May 2024 to 6 June 2024 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 May 2024 to 30 May 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,488 hectares (44.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mezquital (2,545 ha, 0.3 %); Del Nayar (1,961 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.
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: 33. Their median duration was 15 days and their median area 4,352 ha; 12 % went past 10,000 ha. In 17 of 33, 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 1.9 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.
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 errorHow 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 25 May 2024 to 30 May 2024. 300 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with CONAFOR: 2,679 official ha against 4,488 ha of perimeter; similar, but with reservations.
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.
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.