Burned area
satellite only3,053ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 8 May 2022 – 22 May 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
MX · Mexico · –
Villa Corzo fire, 8 May 2022 Villa Corzo
Out · last detection 22 May 2022, 19:35 UTC
The fire started on 8 May 2022 in Villa Corzo, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,053 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 63th largest in Chiapas since 2016 (of 246 with a page). Number 74 in Mexico in 2022, of 232.
Use this data
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Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only15days
8 May 2022 to 22 May 2022: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 22 May 2022, 19:35 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only8 May 2022
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 8 May 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only130
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 54 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 8 May 2022 – 22 May 2022
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only386MW
Total radiative power on 19 May 2022; hotspots that day: 45.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 19 May 2022
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model11.3FWI · moderate
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 0.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 8 May 2022, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model35.5°C · 32% RH
High of 35.5 °C and minimum humidity of 32% on 10 May 2022; gusts of 44 km/h on 21 May 2022.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 8 May 2022 – 22 May 2022
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 100people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 1.7 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2020).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
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.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 3,053 ha
- Dates
- 8 May 2022 – 22 May 2022
- Name
- Villa Corzo
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/villa-corzo-2022-05-4?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire villa-corzo-2022-05-4.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-05-08 | 0 | 0 | 33.1 | 22.7 | 51 | 13.4 | 42.8 | 1.2 | 11.3 | moderado | 1 |
| 2022-05-09 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 21.5 | 40 | 12.9 | 38.9 | 0 | 19.6 | moderado | 1 |
| 2022-05-10 | 0 | 0 | 35.5 | 21.6 | 32 | 7.8 | 29.5 | 1.2 | 17.3 | moderado | 1 |
| 2022-05-11 | 0 | 0 | 35.5 | 21.8 | 28 | 12.1 | 38.5 | 2.5 | 15.6 | moderado | 1 |
| 2022-05-12 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 21.6 | 28 | 11.3 | 38.2 | 0.1 | 24.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-05-13 | 0 | 0 | 34.7 | 19.1 | 30 | 7.9 | 29.9 | 0.2 | 23.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-05-14 | 0 | 0 | 33.8 | 21 | 29 | 5.7 | 22 | 0.9 | 19.2 | moderado | 1 |
| 2022-05-15 | 4 | 28 | 33.9 | 20.7 | 30 | 8.4 | 28.1 | 0.1 | 23.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-05-16 | 37 | 161 | 35.3 | 20.3 | 25 | 8.8 | 32.8 | 1.6 | 20.4 | moderado | 1 |
| 2022-05-17 | 10 | 53 | 35.1 | 21.9 | 31 | 7.8 | 25.6 | 1.9 | 14.9 | moderado | 1 |
| 2022-05-18 | 9 | 142 | 33 | 21.7 | 45 | 10.7 | 33.5 | 0.8 | 16.7 | moderado | 1 |
| 2022-05-19 | 45 | 386 | 34.4 | 20.9 | 34 | 14 | 42.8 | 0 | 25.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-05-20 | 13 | 13 | 34.3 | 20.7 | 36 | 13.5 | 42.1 | 0 | 26.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-05-21 | 10 | 48 | 33.5 | 20 | 37 | 13.8 | 43.9 | 0 | 26.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-05-22 | 2 | 10 | 33.3 | 20.9 | 41 | 11.2 | 36.7 | 17.3 | 3.4 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2022-05-23 | 0 | 0 | 32.3 | 20.2 | 45 | 7.3 | 25.6 | 12.2 | 0.9 | muy_bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 3,053ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 8 May 2022 – 22 May 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 8 May
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 130
- in a single hotspot: 54 MW
- Danger at start
- 11
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 105MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
8 May22 May
22 May 2022
How it evolved, day by day
15 May
17 May
19 May
21 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
36°high
44km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity
It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 12.2 mm on 23 May.
This area had burned before
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 164 ha in 2016, 2,137 ha in 2017, 415 ha in 2018, 2,078 ha in 2019, 507 ha in 2020, 341 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,774 ha that had burned before.
- 2,078 ha Villa Corzo fire, April 2019 4,233 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,066 ha Villa Corzo fire, April 2017 3,445 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 415 ha Villa Corzo fire, March 2018 2,188 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 341 ha Villa Corzo fire, April 2021 2,425 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 164 ha Villa Corzo fire, May 2016 1,738 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 70 ha Villa Corzo fire, May 2017 1,969 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
-
Villa Corzo where it started3,070 ha reached on 15 May1.1 %
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 2020Built-up area1.7 ha
Residents≈ 100
Inside the perimeter there were about 1.7 hectares of built-up land and about 100 residents (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
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 May | 33.1 °C | 51 % | 43 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 9 May | 35.0 °C | 40 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 10 May | 35.5 °C | 32 % | 30 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 11 May | 35.5 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 2.5 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 12 May | 35.0 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 13 May | 34.7 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 23 |
| 14 May | 33.8 °C | 29 % | 22 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 15 May | 33.9 °C | 30 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 16 May | 35.3 °C | 25 % | 33 km/h | 1.6 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 17 May | 35.1 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 1.9 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 18 May | 33.0 °C | 45 % | 34 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 19 May | 34.4 °C | 34 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 20 May | 34.3 °C | 36 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 21 May | 33.5 °C | 37 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 22 May | 33.3 °C | 41 % | 37 km/h | 17.3 mm | Very low 3 |
| 23 May after | 32.3 °C | 45 % | 26 km/h | 12.2 mm | Very low 1 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 11.3, a minimum humidity of 51% and rain the day before. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 31.
FWI at the start
11.3
Minimum humidity
51 %
Days without rain
0
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Villa Corzo fire, 8 May 2022
3,053 ha
15 days
FWI 11.3
Min. humidity 51 %
La Concordia fire, April 2017
3,257 ha
8 days
FWI 10.4
Min. humidity 49 %
19 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.3 mm on 1 May.
Villa Corzo fire, May 2019
1,576 ha
5 days
FWI 10.0
Min. humidity 49 %
21 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.3 mm on 10 May.
Santo Domingo Zanatepec fire, February 2023
1,510 ha
4 days
FWI 11.0
Min. humidity 51 %
146 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.7 mm on 17 Feb.
Centro fire, July 2022
1,524 ha
4 days
FWI 11.2
Min. humidity 51 %
245 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.6 mm on 23 Jul.
Venustiano Carranza fire, March 2022
2,526 ha
8 days
FWI 11.2
Min. humidity 50 %
62 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.0 mm on 12 Mar.
What happened to them
- 8 days
- median duration
- 2,107 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 2.8 mm
- rain at the end (median; 29 of 31 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (3,053 ha against a median of 2,107 ha) and lasted 15 days, against 8 days.
In 2 of 31, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.8 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
12.2 mmfirst rain
23 Maythe day after it ended
44km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 22 May, and on 23 May 12.2 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 29 of 31, with a median of 2.8 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 1 May 2022
After · 29 May 2022
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 130Every 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
- 8,650 haVilla Corzo4 April 2019 · 22 days · 21 km away
- 12,247 haLa ConcordiaMarch 2024 · 26 days · 24 km away
- 8,571 haVilla Corzo20 April 2019 · 15 days · 33 km away
- 8,399 haLa Concordia17 April 2020 · 13 days · 39 km away
- 7,326 haLa ConcordiaMarch 2023 · 15 days · 39 km away
- 7,012 haLa Concordia17 April 2017 · 18 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Villa Corzo fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 8 May 2022 to 22 May 2022 (15 days). The perimeter dates it from 15 May 2022 to 21 May 2022.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,053 hectares (30.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Villa Corzo (3,070 ha, 1.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, class 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 31. Their median duration was 8 days and their median area 2,107 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 2 of 31, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.8 mm.
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 With cross-checks and a citable version
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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 15 May 2022 to 21 May 2022. 130 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- 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.