San Ignacio fire, May 2024 San Ignacio, El Porvenir
The fire started on 14 May 2024 in San Ignacio, Honduras, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,093 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 9th largest in Francisco Morazán since 2016 (of 177 with a page). Number 2 in Honduras in 2024, of 94.
The power measured by the satellite is low (16.3 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 5,093ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 14 May 2024 – 20 May 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 14 May
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 178
- in a single hotspot: 16 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 473MW
- 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 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 21 May.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,131 ha in 2016, 2,092 ha in 2017, 3,396 ha in 2018, 2,230 ha in 2019, 5,254 ha in 2020, 3,237 ha in 2022, 723 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,049 ha that had burned before.
- 5,254 ha Orica fire, March 2020 63,428 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,392 ha San Ignacio fire, March 2018 6,368 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,065 ha El Porvenir fire, April 2022 3,530 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,348 ha San Ignacio fire, April 2019 1,516 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,250 ha San Ignacio fire, March 2017 2,300 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,115 ha San Ignacio fire, April 2016 1,298 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,064 ha San Ignacio fire, March 2022 1,198 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 841 ha El Porvenir fire, April 2017 2,031 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
San Ignacio where it started3,811 ha reached on 12 May11 %
-
1,313 ha reached on 12 May3.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 May | 35.4 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 13 May | 35.5 °C | 30 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 14 May | 35.2 °C | 25 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 15 May | 35.4 °C | 29 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 16 May | 34.7 °C | 33 % | 38 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 37 |
| 17 May | 35.0 °C | 38 % | 37 km/h | 1.8 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 18 May | 37.0 °C | 25 % | 38 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 38 |
| 19 May | 35.7 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 20 May | 35.9 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 33 |
| 21 May after | 36.2 °C | 27 % | 28 km/h | 1.6 mm | High 24 |
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 21 May 2024 the air beside the fire reached 67 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 36: 2.4 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 · 178Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,368 haSan IgnacioMarch 2018 · 21 days · 6 km away
- 7,183 haCedros15 March 2020 · 38 days · 18 km away
- 22,862 haCedros21 March 2020 · 41 days · 20 km away
- 7,933 haCedros23 March 2020 · 39 days · 23 km away
- 63,428 haOrica26 March 2020 · 36 days · 24 km away
- 6,933 haGuaimaca14 May 2026 · 10 days · 29 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the San Ignacio fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 May 2024 and 20 May 2024: 7 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 5,093 hectares (50.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: San Ignacio (3,811 ha, 11 %); El Porvenir (1,313 ha, 3.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Honduras (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 International (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.