How long did the Zirándaro fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 April 2024 to 3 May 2024 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 April 2024 to 1 May 2024.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,536 hectares (45.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Zirándaro (4,553 ha, 2.1 %); Huetamo (12 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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 · 2024-04-20 → 2024-05-03

Zirándaro fire, April 2024 Zirándaro, Huetamo

Out · last detection 3 May 2024, 20:27 UTC

The fire started on 20 April 2024 in Zirándaro, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,536 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 120th largest in Guerrero since 2016 (of 612 with a page). Number 60 in Mexico in 2024, of 289.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Zirándaro · 2021 Zirándaro · 2017 Coyuca de Catalán · 2021 Coyuca de Catalán · 2019

Burnt area: 4,536ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 14days; 20 Apr 2024 – 3 May 2024
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 20 Apr; 2024
Heat detections: 249; in a single hotspot: 150 MW
Danger at start: 55; Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power: 146MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Apr3 May

Play back 3 May 2024

How it evolved, day by day

20 Apr 22 Apr 24 Apr 26 Apr 28 Apr 30 Apr 2 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

40°high

59km/h · peak gust

13%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,616 ha in 2021.

2,794 ha Zirándaro fire, April 2021 3,944 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 2.9% of the area of London (45 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

Zirándaro where it started

4,553 ha reached on 20 Apr

2.1 %
Huetamo

12 ha

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 area1.1 ha

Residents≈ 50

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.1 hectares of built-up land and about 50 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

Several official records match this area

According to CONAFOR, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 3,579 ha (the satellite measured 4,536 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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

1 695 ha 2 2,884 ha

20 Apr2 May

cause unknown or not published

1 Zirándaro Embaro / Pinzándaro 20 April 2024 695 ha · extinguished on 3 May 2024 · cause: unknown
2 Zirándaro Guarichicaguaro 23 April 2024 2,884 ha · extinguished on 1 May 2024 · cause: unknown

Total according to CONAFOR: 3,579 ha, 79 % of the 4,536 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	Danger (FWI)
20 Apr	39.2 °C	16 %	54 km/h	Extreme 55
21 Apr	39.7 °C	22 %	42 km/h	Extreme 50
22 Apr	39.8 °C	21 %	48 km/h	Extreme 52
23 Apr	39.2 °C	15 %	50 km/h	Extreme 54
24 Apr	39.2 °C	13 %	59 km/h	Extreme 60
25 Apr	39.1 °C	24 %	51 km/h	Extreme 52
26 Apr	37.8 °C	23 %	49 km/h	Extreme 51
27 Apr	38.8 °C	21 %	48 km/h	Extreme 52
28 Apr	37.7 °C	21 %	43 km/h	Very high 49
29 Apr	38.0 °C	22 %	44 km/h	Very high 49
30 Apr	38.6 °C	23 %	45 km/h	Extreme 51
1 May	38.4 °C	24 %	45 km/h	Extreme 51
2 May	38.8 °C	19 %	46 km/h	Extreme 52
3 May	39.7 °C	20 %	49 km/h	Extreme 52
4 May after	40.3 °C	19 %	48 km/h	Extreme 51
5 May after	40.7 °C	19 %	49 km/h	Extreme 52
6 May after	39.8 °C	17 %	48 km/h	Extreme 52
7 May after	40.6 °C	17 %	46 km/h	Extreme 51
8 May after	39.7 °C	17 %	47 km/h	Extreme 53
9 May after	39.5 °C	21 %	48 km/h	Extreme 54
10 May after	39.4 °C	20 %	48 km/h	Extreme 52
11 May after	38.6 °C	22 %	48 km/h	Extreme 55
12 May after	39.7 °C	19 %	49 km/h	Extreme 54
13 May after	38.3 °C	24 %	46 km/h	Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 13 Apr 2024

After · 10 May 2024

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 26 April 2024 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak24 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM1036 µg/m³

Optical depth0.63

WHO 15

1920212223242526272829301234

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 · 249Every 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 Zirándaro fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 April 2024 to 3 May 2024 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 April 2024 to 1 May 2024.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,536 hectares (45.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Zirándaro (4,553 ha, 2.1 %); Huetamo (12 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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

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.

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What really happened?

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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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 21 April 2024 to 1 May 2024. 249 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with CONAFOR: 3,579 official ha against 4,536 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.

Where it burned