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.
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
27.7°C · 20% RH
High of 27.7 °C and minimum humidity of 20% on 3 May 2024; gusts of 57 km/h on 27 April 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
Matches: 5,185 ha in the official record (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
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.
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 area0.25ha
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.
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)
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 start39.3
Minimum humidity19 %
Days without rain60+
this firechosen twinsrest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · La Yesca fire, 27 April 2024
6,359 ha8 daysFWI 39.3Min. humidity 19 %
La Yesca fire, May 2025
4,487 ha11 daysFWI 40.1Min. humidity 19 %21 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.6 mm on 30 May.
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.
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 20 Apr 2024
After · 11 May 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 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 peak170µg/m³
Days over the guideline8days
PM10244µg/m³
Optical depth0.83
WHO 15
25 Apr28 Apr1 May4 May7 May
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· 350Every 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.
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.
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 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.
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.