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Matehuala fire, April 2024 Matehuala, Doctor Arroyo

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

The fire started on 26 April 2024 in Matehuala, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,222 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 15th largest in San Luis Potosí since 2016 (of 19 with a page). Number 160 in Mexico in 2024, of 289.

Burnt area
2,222ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
26 Apr 2024 – 4 May 2024
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
26 Apr
2024
Heat detections
196
in a single hotspot: 80 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 May 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Apr4 May

How it evolved, day by day

26272829301234

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
52km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Matehuala 102,199 inhabitants where it started
    1,407 ha reached on 26 Apr
    1.1 %
  2. Doctor Arroyo
    824 ha reached on 28 Apr
    0.2 %

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 1,115 ha (the satellite measured 2,222 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)
26 Apr 30.4 °C 5 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Apr 29.8 °C 5 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Apr 29.9 °C 7 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Apr 30.3 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Apr 28.7 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 May 32.4 °C 13 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 May 32.1 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 May 33.0 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
4 May 30.8 °C 23 % 52 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 46
5 May after 31.8 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 May after 32.0 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 43
7 May after 32.2 °C 10 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 May after 34.1 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 May after 34.7 °C 5 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 May after 33.6 °C 13 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
11 May after 31.2 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 May after 33.8 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.4 mm Extreme 52
13 May after 32.3 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.4 mm Extreme 54
14 May after 29.1 °C 29 % 57 km/h 0.5 mm Extreme 51
15 May after 33.3 °C 8 % 41 km/h 0.6 mm Extreme 51
16 May after 33.9 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 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 30 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak30 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1044 µg/m³
Optical depth0.48
242526272829301234567
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 · 196Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Matehuala fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 April 2024 and 4 May 2024: 9 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 2,222 hectares (22.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Matehuala (1,407 ha, 1.1 %); Doctor Arroyo (824 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.