How long did the Valparaíso fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 May 2023 to 21 June 2023 (39 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 May 2023 to 14 June 2023. According to CONAFOR, the largest of the 6 recorded fires was detected on 14 May 2023 and declared extinguished on 12 June 2023.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 19,923 hectares (199.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 4 municipalities: Valparaíso (9,958 ha, 1.7 %); Mezquitic (6,391 ha, 1.9 %); Del Nayar (3,352 ha, 0.6 %); Mezquital (310 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.

MX · Mexico · 2023-05-14 → 2023-06-21

Valparaíso fire, May 2023 Valparaíso, Mezquitic, Del Nayar

Out · last detection 21 Jun 2023, 19:33 UTC

The fire started on 14 May 2023 in Valparaíso, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 39 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 19,923 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities. According to CONAFOR, the largest of the 6 recorded fires was detected on 14 May 2023 and declared extinguished on 12 June 2023.

It is the largest fire in Zacatecas since 2016 (of 32 with a page). The largest in Mexico in 2023, of 285.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Del Nayar · 2017 Mezquitic · 2021 Mezquital · 2017 Del Nayar · 2021

Burnt area: 19,923ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 39days; 14 May 2023 – 21 Jun 2023
Municipalities hit: 4; municipalities
Started on: 14 May; 2023
Heat detections: 1,782; in a single hotspot: 67 MW
Danger at start: 40; Very high · FWI index
Average daily power: 344MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 May21 Jun

Play back 21 Jun 2023

How it evolved, day by day

14 May 22 May 28 May 3 Jun 4 Jun 9 Jun 15 Jun 21 Jun

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

The weather it burned in

33°high

62km/h · peak gust

12%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.9 mm on 29 Jun.

This area had burned before

25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,596 ha in 2017, 58 ha in 2018, 270 ha in 2019, 1,270 ha in 2021, 136 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,080 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 13% of the area of London (199 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

Valparaíso where it started

9,958 ha reached on 14 May

1.7 %
Mezquitic

6,391 ha reached on 31 May

1.9 %
Del Nayar

3,352 ha reached on 16 May

0.6 %
Mezquital

310 ha reached on 14 May

0.0 %

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 area2.9 ha

Residents≈ 200

Inside the perimeter there were about 2.9 hectares of built-up land and about 200 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

Complex of 6 fires according to CONAFOR

According to CONAFOR, 6 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 16,018 ha (the satellite measured 19,923 ha).

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.

When each one burned

1 7,694 ha 2 1,325 ha 3 1,441 ha 4 113 ha 5 4,430 ha 6 1,016 ha

14 May24 Jun

cause unknown or not published negligence

1 Valparaíso Ojo De Angel 14 May 2023 7,694 ha · extinguished on 12 June 2023 · cause: unknown
2 Del Nayar Guadalupe 17 May 2023 1,325 ha · extinguished on 2 June 2023 · cause: negligence
3 Del Nayar El Chalate 22 May 2023 1,441 ha · extinguished on 14 June 2023 · cause: unknown
4 Mezquital Ejido El Refugio Y Anexos / Torrecillas Ojo De Ángel Valparaíso 27 May 2023 113 ha · extinguished on 19 June 2023 · cause: unknown
5 Mezquitic El Batallon 4 June 2023 4,430 ha · extinguished on 13 June 2023 · cause: unknown
6 Del Nayar El Saucito Peyotán 18 June 2023 1,016 ha · extinguished on 25 June 2023 · cause: unknown

Total according to CONAFOR: 16,018 ha, 80 % of the 19,923 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)
14 May	24.7 °C	18 %	62 km/h	0.6 mm	Very high 40
15 May	25.7 °C	16 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
16 May	24.6 °C	21 %	51 km/h	0.5 mm	Very high 40
17 May	24.9 °C	22 %	47 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 40
18 May	25.7 °C	22 %	45 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 38
19 May	25.8 °C	24 %	30 km/h	0.3 mm	High 34
20 May	19.9 °C	35 %	24 km/h	0.5 mm	High 29
21 May	26.7 °C	24 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
22 May	27.3 °C	17 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
23 May	28.1 °C	14 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
24 May	27.3 °C	16 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
25 May	27.0 °C	16 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
26 May	29.6 °C	17 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
27 May	27.5 °C	24 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
28 May	25.5 °C	18 %	58 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
29 May	25.7 °C	22 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
30 May	27.8 °C	17 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
31 May	28.7 °C	14 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
1 Jun	29.4 °C	15 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
2 Jun	31.7 °C	16 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
3 Jun	29.7 °C	12 %	59 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
4 Jun	28.8 °C	16 %	61 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
5 Jun	29.5 °C	18 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
6 Jun	28.3 °C	33 %	35 km/h	2.2 mm	Moderate 13
7 Jun	28.4 °C	19 %	44 km/h	0.1 mm	High 32
8 Jun	28.6 °C	21 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
9 Jun	31.2 °C	20 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
10 Jun	31.2 °C	18 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
11 Jun	31.9 °C	18 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
12 Jun	31.9 °C	25 %	36 km/h	2.3 mm	Moderate 18
13 Jun	32.6 °C	22 %	31 km/h	3.6 mm	Moderate 12
14 Jun	31.3 °C	29 %	43 km/h	0.2 mm	High 25
15 Jun	32.4 °C	25 %	35 km/h	0.6 mm	High 29
16 Jun	30.6 °C	26 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
17 Jun	30.7 °C	25 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
18 Jun	30.5 °C	26 %	40 km/h	0.3 mm	High 30
19 Jun	31.9 °C	22 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
20 Jun	32.8 °C	18 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
21 Jun	33.3 °C	24 %	30 km/h	0.7 mm	High 32
22 Jun after	32.6 °C	21 %	32 km/h	0.3 mm	High 33
23 Jun after	32.2 °C	21 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
24 Jun after	33.6 °C	15 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
25 Jun after	34.2 °C	14 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
26 Jun after	31.8 °C	18 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
27 Jun after	30.3 °C	18 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
28 Jun after	29.7 °C	24 %	41 km/h	0.9 mm	High 30
29 Jun after	26.5 °C	40 %	30 km/h	7.9 mm	Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 7 May 2023

After · 28 Jun 2023

Before After

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 5 June 2023 the air beside the fire reached 96 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 40: 2.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak96 µg/m³

Days over the guideline20 days

PM10137 µg/m³

Optical depth0.91

WHO 15

192021222324252627282930311234567891011121314151617

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 · 1,782Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mexico ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Valparaíso fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 May 2023 to 21 June 2023 (39 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 May 2023 to 14 June 2023. According to CONAFOR, the largest of the 6 recorded fires was detected on 14 May 2023 and declared extinguished on 12 June 2023.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 19,923 hectares (199.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 4 municipalities: Valparaíso (9,958 ha, 1.7 %); Mezquitic (6,391 ha, 1.9 %); Del Nayar (3,352 ha, 0.6 %); Mezquital (310 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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 ›

CONAFOR · Comisión Nacional Forestal ↗
CENAPRED ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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

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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.

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How we know this

Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 21 May 2023 to 14 June 2023. 1,782 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with CONAFOR: 16,018 official ha against 19,923 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
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.

Where it burned