Petatlán fire, May 2022 Petatlán
The fire started on 16 May 2022 in Petatlán, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,624 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 568th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 205 in Mexico in 2022, of 235.
- Burnt area
- 1,624ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 16 May 2022 – 20 May 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 16 May
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 39
- in a single hotspot: 80 MW
- Danger at start
- 26
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 388MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 23 May.
This area had burned before
80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,018 ha in 2017, 170 ha in 2018, 361 ha in 2019, 148 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,303 ha that had burned before.
- 974 ha Petatlán fire, April 2017 3,254 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 236 ha Petatlán fire, March 2019 2,617 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 170 ha Petatlán fire, April 2018 1,940 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 148 ha Petatlán fire, May 2020 4,198 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 44 ha Petatlán fire, May 2017 2,482 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Petatlán where it started1,633 ha reached on 16 May0.8 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 May | 33.1 °C | 39 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 17 May | 33.5 °C | 36 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 18 May | 32.9 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 19 May | 33.1 °C | 21 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 20 May | 31.2 °C | 39 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 21 May after | 30.2 °C | 57 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 22 May after | 31.8 °C | 57 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 23 May after | 32.2 °C | 61 % | 37 km/h | 2.0 mm | Low 8 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 39Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 12,495 haZihuatanejo de Azueta1 May 2020 · 22 days · 33 km away
- 10,278 haCoyuca de Catalán1 May 2019 · 25 days · 34 km away
- 8,480 haCoyuca de Catalán14 May 2020 · 19 days · 35 km away
- 9,445 haCoyuca de Catalán15 April 2017 · 20 days · 37 km away
- 14,131 haCoyuca de Catalán2 May 2019 · 17 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Petatlán fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 May 2022 and 20 May 2022: 5 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 1,624 hectares (16.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Petatlán (1,633 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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
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
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.