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Halachó fire, May 2024 Halachó, Maxcanú

Out · last detection 26 May 2024, 19:56 UTC

The fire started on 8 May 2024 in Halachó, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,225 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Yucatán since 2016 (of 17 with a page). Number 158 in Mexico in 2024, of 289.

Burnt area
2,225ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
8 May 2024 – 25 May 2024
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
8 May
2024
Heat detections
190
in a single hotspot: 154 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 May 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 May25 May

How it evolved, day by day

8111213141617181920212223242526

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
49km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 8 Jun.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Halachó 10,183 inhabitants where it started
    1,790 ha reached on 8 May
    3.0 %
  2. Maxcanú
    446 ha reached on 12 May
    0.5 %

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.

Official record

According to CONAFOR, this fire started on 11 May 2024 and burned 3,178 ha (the satellite measured 2,225 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

CONAFOR (Comisión Nacional Forestal), estadística de incendios forestales en datos.gob.mx (CC BY 4.0). This is the agency’s consolidated statistic: it measures the area in its own way, which is why it can differ from the satellite.

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)
8 May 40.7 °C 35 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 May 41.7 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
10 May 38.8 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 May 37.2 °C 45 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 May 38.6 °C 38 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 May 41.1 °C 33 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 May 38.4 °C 43 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 May 36.7 °C 45 % 37 km/h 0.3 mm High 38
16 May 39.4 °C 36 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 May 42.2 °C 30 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
18 May 40.6 °C 38 % 43 km/h 1.8 mm High 34
19 May 36.4 °C 48 % 36 km/h 0.6 mm High 28
20 May 37.2 °C 43 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
21 May 37.4 °C 39 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 May 37.4 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 May 39.7 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 May 39.0 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 May 38.2 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 May after 39.0 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 May after 39.1 °C 39 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 May after 37.9 °C 42 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 May after 36.3 °C 43 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 May after 37.0 °C 41 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 May after 38.2 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Jun after 38.5 °C 39 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Jun after 36.5 °C 43 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 43
3 Jun after 37.4 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
4 Jun after 37.9 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Jun after 38.0 °C 40 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Jun after 37.6 °C 41 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Jun after 36.6 °C 48 % 43 km/h 0.6 mm High 32
8 Jun after 36.2 °C 48 % 38 km/h 1.6 mm High 25

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 May 2024
After · 1 Jun 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 14 May 2024 the air beside the fire reached 44 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 23: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak44 µg/m³
Days over the guideline11 days
PM1062 µg/m³
Optical depth1.31
678910111213141516171819202122232425262728
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 · 190Every 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 Halachó fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 May 2024 and 25 May 2024: 18 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 2,225 hectares (22.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Halachó (1,790 ha, 3.0 %); Maxcanú (446 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 42.2 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.

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
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.

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.