Ixtapa fire, April 2023 Zinacantán, Ixtapa
The fire started on 25 April 2023 in Ixtapa, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,740 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 209th largest in Chiapas since 2016 (of 265 with a page). Number 226 in Mexico in 2023, of 286.
- Burnt area
- 1,740ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 25 Apr 2023 – 29 Apr 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 25 Apr
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 74
- in a single hotspot: 126 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 920MW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.1 mm on 2 May.
This area had burned before
68% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 136 ha in 2016, 1,190 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,180 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
1,314 ha reached on 27 Apr6.7 %
-
Ixtapa where it started436 ha reached on 26 Apr1.6 %
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, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 741 ha (the satellite measured 1,740 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
- Zinacantán Jobchenon / Multitaljoc 26 April 2023 612 ha · extinguished on 1 May 2023 · cause: negligence
- Ixtapa Multajo/las Lima 25 April 2023 129 ha · extinguished on 30 April 2023 · cause: unknown
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Apr | 30.2 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 26 Apr | 30.0 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 27 Apr | 30.4 °C | 34 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 28 Apr | 31.0 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 29 Apr | 30.7 °C | 23 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 30 Apr after | 26.9 °C | 48 % | 34 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 1 May after | 31.1 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 2 May after | 30.9 °C | 38 % | 32 km/h | 4.1 mm | Very low 4 |
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 26 April 2023 the air beside the fire reached 51 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 38: 2.5 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 · 74Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ixtapa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 April 2023 and 29 April 2023: 5 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 1,740 hectares (17.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Zinacantán (1,314 ha, 6.7 %); Ixtapa (436 ha, 1.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.0 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, class 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.
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 (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.