Guaimaca fire, 14 May 2026 Guaimaca, Cedros, Talanga
The fire started on 14 May 2026 in Guaimaca, Honduras, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,933 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 6th largest in Francisco Morazán since 2016 (of 177 with a page). Number 3 in Honduras in 2026, of 99.
- Burnt area
- 6,933ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 14 May 2026 – 23 May 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 14 May
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 168
- in a single hotspot: 31 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.2GW
- 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 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.3 mm on 27 May.
This area had burned before
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 842 ha in 2017, 2,617 ha in 2018, 2,465 ha in 2019, 1,096 ha in 2020, 3,659 ha in 2023, 771 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,296 ha that had burned before.
- 3,659 ha Guaimaca fire, April 2023 6,045 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,497 ha Guaimaca fire, April 2018 3,575 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,465 ha Guaimaca fire, March 2019 3,459 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,096 ha Cedros fire, March 2020 22,862 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 842 ha Guaimaca fire, April 2017 1,170 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 771 ha Guaimaca fire, May 2024 1,236 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 120 ha Talanga fire, April 2018 1,543 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Guaimaca where it started5,659 ha reached on 14 May7.2 %
-
1,316 ha reached on 18 May1.7 %
-
0 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 May | 34.3 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 15 May | 34.4 °C | 24 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 16 May | 33.3 °C | 32 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 17 May | 31.9 °C | 40 % | 42 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 35 |
| 18 May | 34.0 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 May | 33.4 °C | 33 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 20 May | 33.4 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 21 May | 35.0 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 22 May | 35.1 °C | 30 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 23 May | 36.0 °C | 27 % | 42 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 40 |
| 24 May after | 34.1 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 36 |
| 25 May after | 32.7 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 May after | 32.2 °C | 35 % | 44 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 38 |
| 27 May after | 30.8 °C | 47 % | 45 km/h | 5.3 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 2026 the air beside the fire reached 54 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 27: 1.8 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 · 168Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,045 haGuaimaca3 April 2023 · 17 days · 3 km away
- 22,862 haCedros21 March 2020 · 41 days · 9 km away
- 6,368 haSan IgnacioMarch 2018 · 21 days · 23 km away
- 7,933 haCedros23 March 2020 · 39 days · 26 km away
- 7,183 haCedros15 March 2020 · 38 days · 26 km away
- 16,093 haCedros25 March 2020 · 37 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Guaimaca fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 May 2026 and 23 May 2026: 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 6,933 hectares (69.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Guaimaca (5,659 ha, 7.2 %); Cedros (1,316 ha, 1.7 %); Talanga (0 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 43 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 Honduras (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 International (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.