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Tamazula fire, 7 April 2025 Tamazula, Culiacán

Out · last detection 25 Apr 2025, 09:22 UTC

The fire started on 7 April 2025 in Tamazula, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,985 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 12th largest in Durango since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 13 in Mexico in 2025, of 167.

Burnt area
8,985ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
7 Apr 2025 – 24 Apr 2025
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
7 Apr
2025
Heat detections
736
in a single hotspot: 50 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Apr 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Apr24 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

78910111213141516171819202122232425

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
63km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 51 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,674 ha in 2016, 3,167 ha in 2018, 2,103 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,338 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Tamazula where it started
    6,434 ha reached on 4 Apr
    1.1 %
  2. Culiacán 13,197 inhabitants
    2,612 ha reached on 7 Apr
    0.4 %

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)
4 Apr 24.6 °C 27 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Apr 23.2 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Apr 25.8 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Apr 30.0 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 Apr 31.6 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Apr 31.4 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Apr 34.1 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Apr 33.7 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Apr 33.4 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Apr 32.4 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 45
14 Apr 34.4 °C 16 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Apr 35.1 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Apr 31.9 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Apr 33.9 °C 19 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Apr 28.7 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Apr 30.1 °C 16 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Apr 31.6 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Apr 31.2 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Apr 31.6 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Apr 29.9 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Apr 30.9 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Apr after 32.8 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Apr after 33.9 °C 15 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Apr after 31.4 °C 23 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Apr after 31.9 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Apr after 30.4 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Apr after 31.8 °C 13 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 May after 32.8 °C 8 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 May after 32.4 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 May after 32.2 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 May after 30.1 °C 19 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 May after 27.3 °C 29 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 May after 27.4 °C 24 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 May after 30.5 °C 17 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 May after 33.2 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 May after 34.6 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 May after 34.3 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 May after 33.7 °C 19 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Mar 2025
After · 1 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 25 April 2025 the air beside the fire reached 68 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 44: 3.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak68 µg/m³
Days over the guideline14 days
PM1069 µg/m³
Optical depth0.41
234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829301234
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 · 736Every 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 Tamazula fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 April 2025 and 24 April 2025: 18 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 8,985 hectares (89.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tamazula (6,434 ha, 1.1 %); Culiacán (2,612 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 63 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
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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.