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MX · Mexico · –

La Yesca fire, 27 April 2024 La Yesca, Del Nayar

Out · last detection 4 May 2024, 20:10 UTC

The fire started on 27 April 2024 in La Yesca, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,359 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 27 April 2024 and declared extinguished on 5 May 2024.

It is the 18th largest in Nayarit since 2016 (of 171 with a page). Number 30 in Mexico in 2024, of 289.

Burnt area
6,359ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
27 Apr 2024 – 4 May 2024
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
27 Apr
2024
Heat detections
350
in a single hotspot: 54 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
370MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Apr4 May
4 May 2024

How it evolved, day by day

27 Apr 2024 · 371 MW · 14 28 Apr 2024 · 820 MW · 87 29 Apr 2024 · 500 MW · 68 30 Apr 2024 · 403 MW · 61 1 May 2024 · 341 MW · 22 2 May 2024 · 190 MW · 67 3 May 2024 · 105 MW · 5 4 May 2024 · 232 MW · 26
28 Apr 1 May 3 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

28°high
57km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

75% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,651 ha in 2016, 4,279 ha in 2019, 368 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,789 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 4% of the area of London (64 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. La Yesca where it started
    5,909 ha reached on 27 Apr
    1.4 %
  2. 486 ha reached on 27 Apr
    0.1 %

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 area0.25 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.25 hectares of 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.

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

According to CONAFOR, this fire started on 27 April 2024 and burned 5,185 ha (the satellite measured 6,359 ha).

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)

Started with Strong wind: 20 % of the area in Mexico 60 days without rain: 24 % of the area in Mexico

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
27 Apr 24.1 °C 19 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Apr 24.7 °C 15 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Apr 25.5 °C 19 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Apr 26.7 °C 18 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 May 24.7 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 May 26.1 °C 21 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 May 27.7 °C 20 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 May 27.0 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 May after 28.7 °C 19 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 May after 26.1 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 May after 26.3 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 May after 29.7 °C 21 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 May after 29.9 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 May after 30.6 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 May after 28.5 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 May after 26.0 °C 28 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 May after 25.2 °C 26 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 May after 26.4 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 39.3, a minimum humidity of 19% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 15.

FWI at the start 39.3
Minimum humidity 19 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

La Yesca fire, May 2025
4,487 ha 11 days FWI 40.1 Min. humidity 19 % 21 km away, in 2025

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.6 mm on 30 May.

What happened to them

9 days
median duration
2,586 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 8 of 15 had it)

It was 2.5 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 8 days, against 9 days.

Only 2 of its 15 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 7 of 15, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.7 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
57km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 4 May, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 8 of 15, with a median of 2.7 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Apr 2024
After · 11 May 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 2 May 2024 the air beside the fire reached 170 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 81: 5.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak170 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM10244 µg/m³
Optical depth0.83
25 Apr28 Apr1 May4 May7 May
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 · 350Every 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 Yesca fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 April 2024 and 4 May 2024: 8 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter. According to CONAFOR, it was detected on 27 April 2024 and declared extinguished on 5 May 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,359 hectares (63.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: La Yesca (5,909 ha, 1.4 %); Del Nayar (486 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.7 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 57 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 15. Their median duration was 9 days and their median area 2,586 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 2 of its 15 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 7 of 15, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.7 mm.

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.

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 350 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with CONAFOR: 5,185 official ha against 6,359 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
  • 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.

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.