Uruachi fire, March 2025 Uruachi
The fire started on 7 March 2025 in Uruachi, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,830 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 42th largest in Chihuahua since 2016 (of 235 with a page). Number 22 in Mexico in 2025, of 167.
- Burnt area
- 5,830ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 22days
- 7 Mar 2025 – 28 Mar 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 7 Mar
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 479
- in a single hotspot: 35 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.3GW
- 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 55 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 4 Apr.
This area had burned before
62% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,302 ha in 2017, 540 ha in 2019, 228 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,630 ha that had burned before.
- 3,302 ha Uruachi fire, May 2017 5,671 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 540 ha Uruachi fire, May 2019 2,071 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 228 ha Uruachi fire, May 2021 2,973 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Uruachi where it started5,853 ha reached on 7 Mar2.2 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Mar | 17.9 °C | 25 % | 63 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 8 Mar | 16.5 °C | 20 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 9 Mar | 19.6 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 10 Mar | 21.9 °C | 15 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 11 Mar | 22.2 °C | 14 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 12 Mar | 22.0 °C | 13 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 13 Mar | 20.9 °C | 21 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 14 Mar | 17.6 °C | 28 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 15 Mar | 17.6 °C | 20 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 16 Mar | 27.9 °C | 12 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 17 Mar | 26.7 °C | 18 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 18 Mar | 22.9 °C | 19 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 19 Mar | 24.5 °C | 13 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 20 Mar | 26.1 °C | 12 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 21 Mar | 24.3 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 22 Mar | 24.3 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 23 Mar | 24.2 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Mar | 27.4 °C | 11 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 25 Mar | 26.9 °C | 17 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 26 Mar | 26.0 °C | 16 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 27 Mar | 24.7 °C | 18 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 28 Mar | 25.3 °C | 19 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 29 Mar after | 24.0 °C | 18 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 30 Mar after | 24.3 °C | 17 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 31 Mar after | 28.6 °C | 11 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 1 Apr after | 25.0 °C | 19 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 2 Apr after | 21.7 °C | 24 % | 67 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 3 Apr after | 19.2 °C | 29 % | 71 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 4 Apr after | 15.7 °C | 29 % | 61 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 19 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 26 March 2025 the air beside the fire reached 45 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 27: 1.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 479Every 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 Uruachi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 March 2025 and 28 March 2025: 22 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 5,830 hectares (58.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Uruachi (5,853 ha, 2.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 27.9 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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.