Petatlán fire, April 2024 Petatlán
The fire started on 19 April 2024 in Petatlán, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,248 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 210th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 97 in Mexico in 2024, of 289.
- Burnt area
- 3,248ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 19 Apr 2024 – 26 Apr 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 19 Apr
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 151
- in a single hotspot: 53 MW
- Danger at start
- 27
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 905MW
- 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.
This area had burned before
36% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,163 ha in 2020.
What happened to each town
-
Petatlán where it started3,265 ha reached on 19 Apr1.6 %
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, this fire started on 20 April 2024 and burned 1,582 ha (the satellite measured 3,248 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
- Petatlán Río Frío / La Soledad de los Enanos 20 April 2024 1,582 ha · extinguished on 29 April 2024 · cause: unknown
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Apr | 30.3 °C | 34 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 20 Apr | 29.6 °C | 33 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 21 Apr | 30.7 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 22 Apr | 30.0 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 28 |
| 23 Apr | 30.3 °C | 31 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 24 Apr | 30.3 °C | 28 % | 41 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 30 |
| 25 Apr | 30.0 °C | 38 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 29 |
| 26 Apr | 29.0 °C | 35 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 27 Apr after | 29.1 °C | 37 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 28 Apr after | 28.6 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 29 Apr after | 28.6 °C | 38 % | 40 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 29 |
| 30 Apr after | 29.0 °C | 45 % | 37 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 26 |
| 1 May after | 29.6 °C | 33 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 2 May after | 30.2 °C | 33 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 3 May after | 30.5 °C | 35 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 4 May after | 30.6 °C | 40 % | 36 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 24 |
| 5 May after | 30.6 °C | 38 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 6 May after | 30.9 °C | 35 % | 36 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 26 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 29 April 2024 the air beside the fire reached 22 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 151Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Petatlán fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 April 2024 and 26 April 2024: 8 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 3,248 hectares (32.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Petatlán (3,265 ha, 1.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.7 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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.