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La Huerta fire, May 2020 Casimiro Castillo, La Huerta

Out · last detection 29 May 2020, 20:33 UTC

The fire started on 15 May 2020 in La Huerta, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,176 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 76th largest in Jalisco since 2016 (of 283 with a page). Number 66 in Mexico in 2020, of 242.

The power measured by the satellite is low (27.3 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Casimiro Castillo · 2017La Huerta · 2016Cuautitlán de García Barragán · 2016La Huerta · 2016

Burnt area
3,176ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
15 May 2020 – 29 May 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
15 May
2020
Heat detections
192
in a single hotspot: 27 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Average daily power
78MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 May29 May
29 May 2020

How it evolved, day by day

15 May 2020 · 13 MW · 3 16 May 2020 · 196 MW · 17 17 May 2020 · 163 MW · 21 18 May 2020 · 111 MW · 39 19 May 2020 · 56 MW · 17 20 May 2020 · 285 MW · 37 21 May 2020 · 121 MW · 32 22 May 2020 · 24 MW · 10 23 May 2020 · 24 MW · 8 24 May 2020 · 15 MW · 3 25 May 2020 · 2 MW · 2 26 May 2020 · 1 MW · 1 29 May 2020 · 7 MW · 2
15 May 17 May 19 May 20 May 21 May 23 May 25 May 29 May

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
45km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 349 ha in 2016, 2,422 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,423 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2% of the area of London (32 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Casimiro Castillo
    1,605 ha reached on 16 May
    3.0 %
  2. La Huerta where it started
    1,588 ha reached on 15 May
    0.8 %

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 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

Official record

Several official records match this area

According to CONAFOR, 3 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 1,441 ha (the satellite measured 3,176 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

CONAFOR records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.

When each one burned

1 373 ha 2 835 ha 3 233 ha
17 May23 May
negligence
  1. 1 La Huerta Los Arboles 17 May 2020 373 ha · extinguished on 20 May 2020 · cause: negligence
  2. 2 Casimiro Castillo El Chico 20 May 2020 835 ha · extinguished on 21 May 2020 · cause: negligence
  3. 3 Casimiro Castillo Puerto Colorado 22 May 2020 233 ha · extinguished on 24 May 2020 · cause: negligence

Total according to CONAFOR: 1,441 ha, 45 % of the 3,176 ha in the satellite perimeter.

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)
15 May 32.9 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 May 33.2 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 May 33.7 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 May 34.7 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 May 34.3 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 May 33.9 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 May 32.7 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
22 May 33.5 °C 37 % 44 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
23 May 32.6 °C 40 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 May 32.3 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 May 30.4 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 May 31.3 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 May 31.2 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 May 32.3 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 May 32.4 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 May after 30.7 °C 50 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
31 May after 30.1 °C 51 % 35 km/h 0.4 mm High 24
1 Jun after 31.3 °C 50 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
2 Jun after 31.2 °C 52 % 34 km/h 0.4 mm High 24
3 Jun after 31.5 °C 57 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm High 23
4 Jun after 32.2 °C 53 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
5 Jun after 30.3 °C 62 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
6 Jun after 30.1 °C 61 % 37 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 15
7 Jun after 29.5 °C 63 % 36 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 13
8 Jun after 30.7 °C 55 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 May 2020
After · 5 Jun 2020

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 192Every 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 La Huerta fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 15 May 2020 to 29 May 2020 (15 days). The perimeter dates it from 15 May 2020 to 26 May 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,176 hectares (31.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Casimiro Castillo (1,605 ha, 3.0 %); La Huerta (1,588 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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
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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.

How 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 15 May 2020 to 26 May 2020. 192 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with CONAFOR: 1,441 official ha against 3,176 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 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.