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Tlalchapa fire, April 2023 Tlalchapa, Cutzamala de Pinzón, Amatepec

Out · last detection 4 May 2023, 08:22 UTC

The fire started on 23 April 2023 in Tlalchapa, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,130 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 221th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 95 in Mexico in 2023, of 285.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Tlalchapa · 2019Cutzamala de Pinzón · 2016Cutzamala de Pinzón · 2024Tlatlaya · 2020

Burnt area
3,130ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
23 Apr 2023 – 4 May 2023
Municipalities hit
4
municipalities
Started on
23 Apr
2023
Heat detections
156
in a single hotspot: 249 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
171MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Apr4 May
4 May 2023

How it evolved, day by day

23 Apr 2023 · 8 MW · 2 25 Apr 2023 · 750 MW · 10 26 Apr 2023 · 6 MW · 1 27 Apr 2023 · 242 MW · 11 28 Apr 2023 · 81 MW · 17 29 Apr 2023 · 130 MW · 22 30 Apr 2023 · 128 MW · 23 1 May 2023 · 112 MW · 27 2 May 2023 · 386 MW · 33 3 May 2023 · 31 MW · 9 4 May 2023 · 2 MW · 1
23 Apr 25 Apr 26 Apr 28 Apr 30 Apr 2 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

35°high
38km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 13 May.

This area had burned before

69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 528 ha in 2016, 1,769 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,149 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2% of the area of London (31 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. Tlalchapa where it started
    1,826 ha reached on 23 Apr
    3.8 %
  2. Cutzamala de Pinzón
    1,135 ha reached on 29 Apr
    0.8 %
  3. Amatepec
    120 ha reached on 28 Apr
    0.2 %
  4. Tlatlaya
    66 ha reached on 27 Apr
    0.1 %

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≈ 30

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.51 hectares of built-up land and about 30 residents (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 26 April 2023 and burned 1,252 ha (the satellite measured 3,130 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)
23 Apr 34.3 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 50
24 Apr 34.0 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Apr 34.0 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Apr 34.0 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Apr 33.2 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
28 Apr 34.0 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Apr 34.7 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
30 Apr 34.0 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
1 May 33.6 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 May 34.2 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 May 35.2 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 May 34.8 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 May after 34.6 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 47
6 May after 37.5 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 May after 35.9 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 May after 34.5 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
9 May after 35.3 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
10 May after 34.6 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 May after 35.1 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 May after 32.2 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 May after 34.0 °C 20 % 48 km/h 2.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Apr 2023
After · 11 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 1 May 2023 the air beside the fire reached 47 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 29: 1.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak47 µg/m³
Days over the guideline13 days
PM1068 µg/m³
Optical depth0.91
212223242526272829301234567
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 · 156Every 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 Tlalchapa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 April 2023 and 4 May 2023: 12 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 3,130 hectares (31.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Tlalchapa (1,826 ha, 3.8 %); Cutzamala de Pinzón (1,135 ha, 0.8 %); Amatepec (120 ha, 0.2 %); Tlatlaya (66 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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
What do you think is wrong?

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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 156 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with CONAFOR: 1,252 official ha against 3,130 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.