Skip to content
worldfires
MX · Mexico · –

Mezquitic fire, May 2025 Mezquitic, Del Nayar

Out · last detection 24 May 2025, 08:39 UTC

The fire started on 15 May 2025 in Mezquitic, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,730 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 105th largest in Jalisco since 2016 (of 267 with a page). Number 74 in Mexico in 2025, of 163.

Burnt area
2,730ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
15 May 2025 – 24 May 2025
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
15 May
2025
Heat detections
198
in a single hotspot: 52 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
103MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 May24 May
24 May 2025

How it evolved, day by day

15 May 2025 · 226 MW · 11 16 May 2025 · 98 MW · 17 17 May 2025 · 114 MW · 19 18 May 2025 · 183 MW · 33 19 May 2025 · 221 MW · 49 20 May 2025 · 94 MW · 23 21 May 2025 · 72 MW · 34 22 May 2025 · 15 MW · 7 23 May 2025 · 1 MW · 1 24 May 2025 · 7 MW · 4
15 May 17 May 19 May 21 May 23 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

30°high
54km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.6 mm on 30 May.

This area had burned before

54% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,006 ha in 2017, 804 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,461 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.7% of the area of London (27 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. Mezquitic where it started
    2,473 ha reached on 15 May
    0.7 %
  2. 268 ha reached on 21 May
    0.0 %

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 area0.19 ha
Residents≈ 40

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.19 hectares of built-up land and about 40 residents (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

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: 19 % of the area in Mexico 60 days without rain: 25 % of the area in Mexico

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
15 May 30.5 °C 17 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 May 29.5 °C 19 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 May 29.2 °C 28 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 May 27.7 °C 29 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 May 27.5 °C 30 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 May 28.5 °C 25 % 52 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 38
21 May 30.1 °C 24 % 47 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
22 May 29.2 °C 25 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 May 28.6 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 41
24 May 27.9 °C 21 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 May after 28.0 °C 24 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 May after 27.4 °C 26 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 May after 28.0 °C 26 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 May after 28.2 °C 27 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 May after 26.3 °C 23 % 52 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
30 May after 26.6 °C 33 % 31 km/h 3.6 mm High 24

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 45.6, a minimum humidity of 17% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 30.

FWI at the start 45.6
Minimum humidity 17 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Del Nayar fire, May 2022
1,586 ha 5 days FWI 45.8 Min. humidity 18 % 37 km away, in 2022

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

10 days
median duration
2,582 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
1.3 mm
rain at the end (median; 12 of 30 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (2,730 ha against a median of 2,582 ha) and lasted 10 days, against 10 days.

In 18 of 30, 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 1.3 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

3.6 mmfirst rain
30 May6 days after it ended
54km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 24 May, and on 30 May 3.6 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 12 of 30, with a median of 1.3 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 · 8 May 2025
After · 31 May 2025

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 27 May 2025 the air beside the fire reached 93 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 40: 2.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak93 µg/m³
Days over the guideline14 days
PM1095 µg/m³
Optical depth0.52
13 May16 May19 May22 May25 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 · 198Every 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 Mezquitic fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 15 May 2025 to 24 May 2025 (10 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 May 2025 to 24 May 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,730 hectares (27.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mezquitic (2,473 ha, 0.7 %); Del Nayar (268 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.5 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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: 30. Their median duration was 10 days and their median area 2,582 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 18 of 30, 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 1.3 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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 16 May 2025 to 24 May 2025. 198 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • 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.