Texcoco fire, March 2020 Texcoco, Ixtapaluca
The fire started on 26 March 2020 in Texcoco, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,918 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 22th largest in México since 2016 (of 27 with a page). Number 168 in Mexico in 2020, of 243.
- Burnt area
- 1,918ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 26 Mar 2020 – 1 Apr 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 26 Mar
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 60
- in a single hotspot: 107 MW
- Danger at start
- 21
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 519MW
- 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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.0 mm on 2 Apr.
This area had burned before
36% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 638 ha in 2018, 58 ha in 2019.
What happened to each town
-
1,794 ha reached on 26 Mar4.2 %
-
133 ha reached on 27 Mar0.4 %
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.
Official record
According to CONAFOR, 6 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 1,364 ha (the satellite measured 1,918 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
- Texcoco Parque Nacional / Monte Tlaloc 26 March 2020 1,269 ha · extinguished on 1 April 2020 · cause: negligence
- Ixtapaluca Privada Parque Nacional / Tlalupto 28 March 2020 36 ha · extinguished on 28 March 2020 · cause: arson
- Ixtapaluca Parque Nacional/Puico 1 April 2020 20 ha · extinguished on 1 April 2020 · cause: negligence
- Texcoco Bienes Comunales Santa María Tecuanalco / Tecajete 29 March 2020 19 ha · extinguished on 29 March 2020 · cause: unknown
- Texcoco San Gerónimo / Huey Palo 30 March 2020 15 ha · extinguished on 30 March 2020 · cause: arson
- Ixtapaluca Parque Nacional / Los Morados 23 March 2020 5 ha · extinguished on 23 March 2020 · cause: negligence
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Mar | 21.7 °C | 8 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 27 Mar | 21.0 °C | 13 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 28 Mar | 20.7 °C | 14 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 29 Mar | 20.0 °C | 12 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 30 Mar | 20.7 °C | 18 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 31 Mar | 19.7 °C | 17 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 1 Apr | 17.6 °C | 28 % | 22 km/h | 2.1 mm | Very low 4 |
| 2 Apr after | 17.2 °C | 37 % | 28 km/h | 6.0 mm | Very low 1 |
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 · 60Every 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 Texcoco fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 March 2020 and 1 April 2020: 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 1,918 hectares (19.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Texcoco (1,794 ha, 4.2 %); Ixtapaluca (133 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 21.7 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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.