Tlalchapa fire, April 2020 Tlalchapa, Tlatlaya
The fire started on 23 April 2020 in Tlalchapa, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,219 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 216th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 63 in Mexico in 2020, of 242.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 3,219ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 23 Apr 2020 – 29 Apr 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 23 Apr
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 146
- in a single hotspot: 38 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 104MW
- detected power per day, on average
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
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 112 ha in 2016, 3,253 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,204 ha that had burned before.
- 3,253 ha Tlalchapa fire, April 2018 10,623 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 60 ha Tlalchapa fire, March 2016 2,168 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 52 ha Tlalchapa fire, April 2016 3,255 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Tlalchapa where it started2,642 ha reached on 23 Apr5.6 %
-
594 ha reached on 25 Apr0.8 %
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 2020Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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.
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
Several official records match this area
According to CONAFOR, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 1,843 ha (the satellite measured 3,219 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
CONAFOR records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.
- 1 Tlalchapa Ejido Puerto de Allende 22 April 2020 1,547 ha · extinguished on 29 April 2020 · cause: negligence
- 2 Tlatlaya Ejido Rincon Grande/Cerro del Platano 26 April 2020 296 ha · extinguished on 28 April 2020 · cause: arson
Total according to CONAFOR: 1,843 ha, 57 % of the 3,219 ha in the satellite perimeter.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Apr | 35.2 °C | 18 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 24 Apr | 35.9 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 25 Apr | 36.2 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 26 Apr | 36.7 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.6 mm | Very high 50 |
| 27 Apr | 36.5 °C | 9 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 28 Apr | 35.5 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 29 Apr | 36.5 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 30 Apr after | 36.0 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 1 May after | 34.6 °C | 14 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 2 May after | 36.0 °C | 15 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 3 May after | 36.9 °C | 14 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 4 May after | 36.5 °C | 14 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 5 May after | 36.0 °C | 9 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 6 May after | 36.5 °C | 5 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 7 May after | 34.1 °C | 12 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 8 May after | 34.6 °C | 21 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 9 May after | 34.9 °C | 18 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
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 · 146Every 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 Tlalchapa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 April 2020 and 29 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 3,219 hectares (32.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tlalchapa (2,642 ha, 5.6 %); Tlatlaya (594 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 43 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 · 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.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 146 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with CONAFOR: 1,843 official ha against 3,219 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 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.