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Tepetongo fire, April 2023 Monte Escobedo, Tepetongo

Out · last detection 7 May 2023, 20:17 UTC

The fire started on 16 April 2023 in Tepetongo, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,413 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Zacatecas since 2016 (of 32 with a page). Number 16 in Mexico in 2023, of 285.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Monte Escobedo · 2018Monte Escobedo · 2025Monte Escobedo · 2025Mezquitic · 2023

Burnt area
8,413ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
16 Apr 2023 – 7 May 2023
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
16 Apr
2023
Heat detections
684
in a single hotspot: 344 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Average daily power
1.0GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Apr7 May
7 May 2023

How it evolved, day by day

16 Apr 2023 · 120 MW · 10 17 Apr 2023 · 1,782 MW · 28 18 Apr 2023 · 797 MW · 32 19 Apr 2023 · 14 MW · 7 20 Apr 2023 · 243 MW · 13 21 Apr 2023 · 259 MW · 19 22 Apr 2023 · 381 MW · 22 23 Apr 2023 · 651 MW · 21 24 Apr 2023 · 1,074 MW · 54 25 Apr 2023 · 646 MW · 48 26 Apr 2023 · 231 MW · 18 27 Apr 2023 · 840 MW · 46 28 Apr 2023 · 2,086 MW · 58 29 Apr 2023 · 7,775 MW · 112 30 Apr 2023 · 1,492 MW · 119 1 May 2023 · 99 MW · 8 2 May 2023 · 197 MW · 13 3 May 2023 · 882 MW · 21 4 May 2023 · 1,700 MW · 32 5 May 2023 · 15 MW · 2 7 May 2023 · 11 MW · 1
16 Apr 19 Apr 22 Apr 25 Apr 28 Apr 29 Apr 1 May 4 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

28°high
59km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 622 ha in 2018.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 5.3% of the area of London (84 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. Monte Escobedo
    5,051 ha reached on 16 Apr
    3.1 %
  2. Tepetongo where it started
    3,408 ha reached on 16 Apr
    4.7 %

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 area0.51 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.51 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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

Official record

According to CONAFOR, this fire started on 16 April 2023 and burned 5,325 ha (the satellite measured 8,413 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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)
16 Apr 24.0 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Apr 23.4 °C 12 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Apr 22.9 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Apr 25.4 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Apr 26.9 °C 11 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Apr 27.1 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Apr 25.7 °C 12 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Apr 24.6 °C 10 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Apr 23.7 °C 7 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Apr 24.0 °C 7 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Apr 22.7 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Apr 24.7 °C 9 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Apr 24.0 °C 6 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Apr 24.1 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
30 Apr 25.4 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 May 22.8 °C 12 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 May 24.0 °C 8 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
3 May 27.0 °C 6 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 May 24.8 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 May 26.0 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 May 27.6 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 May 26.2 °C 18 % 52 km/h 1.3 mm High 37
8 May after 25.6 °C 13 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
9 May after 25.6 °C 15 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 May after 24.7 °C 15 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 May after 25.2 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 May after 24.3 °C 9 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 May after 24.6 °C 7 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 May after 22.4 °C 14 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 May after 24.0 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
16 May after 23.8 °C 15 % 49 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 53
17 May after 24.1 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Apr 2023
After · 14 May 2023

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 29 April 2023 the air beside the fire reached 124 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 34: 2.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak124 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM10177 µg/m³
Optical depth0.62
14151617181920212223242526272829301234567
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 · 684Every 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 Tepetongo fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 16 April 2023 to 7 May 2023 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 April 2023 to 4 May 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,413 hectares (84.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Monte Escobedo (5,051 ha, 3.1 %); Tepetongo (3,408 ha, 4.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.6 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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 · 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.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

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 April 2023 to 4 May 2023. 684 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with CONAFOR: 5,325 official ha against 8,413 ha of perimeter; similar, but with reservations.
  • 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.