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Tlatlaya fire, April 2023 Tlalchapa, Tlatlaya

Out · last detection 3 May 2023, 19:51 UTC

The fire started on 23 April 2023 in Tlatlaya, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,135 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities. According to CONAFOR, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 24 April 2023 and declared extinguished on 4 May 2023.

It is the 20th largest in México since 2016 (of 27 with a page). Number 166 in Mexico in 2023, of 286.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,135ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
23 Apr 2023 – 3 May 2023
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
23 Apr
2023
Heat detections
86
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
434MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 May 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Apr3 May

How it evolved, day by day

23242526282930123

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

The weather it burned in

39°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

95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 940 ha in 2016, 557 ha in 2018, 2,033 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,022 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Tlalchapa
    1,088 ha reached on 25 Apr
    2.3 %
  2. Tlatlaya where it started
    1,059 ha reached on 23 Apr
    1.3 %

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, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 2,085 ha (the satellite measured 2,135 ha).

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 35.9 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 50
24 Apr 35.6 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Apr 35.6 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Apr 35.6 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Apr 34.8 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
28 Apr 35.6 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Apr 36.3 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Apr 35.6 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 May 35.2 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 May 35.8 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 May 36.8 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
4 May after 36.4 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 May after 36.2 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 48
6 May after 39.1 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
7 May after 37.5 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 May after 36.1 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 May after 36.9 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 May after 36.2 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 May after 36.7 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
12 May after 33.8 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 May after 35.6 °C 21 % 48 km/h 2.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Apr 2023
After · 10 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 guideline12 days
PM1068 µg/m³
Optical depth0.91
21222324252627282930123456
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 · 86Every 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 Tlatlaya fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 April 2023 and 3 May 2023: 11 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter. According to CONAFOR, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 24 April 2023 and declared extinguished on 4 May 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,135 hectares (21.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tlalchapa (1,088 ha, 2.3 %); Tlatlaya (1,059 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.1 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 38 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

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
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.

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.