Guanajuato fire, March 2024
Guanajuato, Dolores Hidalgo Cuna de la Independencia Nacional, San Felipe
Out · last detection 30 Mar 2024, 08:13 UTC
The fire started on 24 March 2024 in Guanajuato, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,877 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
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
3,877ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
This page3,877CONAFOR2,001
Source
GWIS (Copernicus)
Date
24 Mar 2024 – 30 Mar 2024
+− cross-check
CONAFOR: 2,001 ha (matched records: 1). Difference between the page and the official record: +93.8%. 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
7days
24 Mar 2024 to 30 Mar 2024: first and last day with fire on the page.
Source
GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
last detection: 30 Mar 2024, 08:13 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 Mar 2024
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
Source
GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
24 Mar 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
252
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 172 MW.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
Date
24 Mar 2024 – 30 Mar 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
5,206MW
Total radiative power on 26 March 2024; hotspots that day: 142.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
Date
26 Mar 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
86.5FWI · very extreme
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 35.
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
27.4°C · 4% RH
High of 27.4 °C and minimum humidity of 4% on 27 March 2024; gusts of 80 km/h on 25 March 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: 2,001 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
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< 0.1ha
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.
According to CONAFOR, this fire started on 24 March 2024 and burned 2,001 ha (the satellite measured 3,877 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
GuanajuatoCieneguita de San Bartolo/Sierra de Santa Rosa24 March 20242,001 ha· extinguished on 3 April 2024· cause: negligence
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)
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 17 Mar 2024
After · 6 Apr 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 28 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 29 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 15: 1.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak29µg/m³
Days over the guideline1day
PM1042µg/m³
Optical depth0.48
WHO 15
23 Mar26 Mar29 Mar1 Apr
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· 252Every 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 March 2024 to 30 March 2024 (7 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 March 2024 to 30 March 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,877 hectares (38.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Guanajuato (2,651 ha, 2.6 %); Dolores Hidalgo Cuna de la Independencia Nacional (1,230 ha, 0.7 %); San Felipe (19 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.4 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 80 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 101, class Very 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.
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 March 2024 to 30 March 2024. 252 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with CONAFOR: 2,001 official ha against 3,877 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.