Wildfire near Playa del Carmen (Aug 1)
True color
Fire (SWIR)
Infrared / SWIR (right): sees through smoke.
🟢 green = vegetation
🟤 red/brown = burned
🟠 orange = active fire
Imagery: Sentinel-2 (Copernicus). Drag to compare smoke vs. infrared.
Heat detections: NASA FIRMS (last 48h).
Burning near Playa del Carmen, Mexico, an active wildfire spanning 100 hectares, or 247 acres, is currently showing a moderate heat signature according to satellite observations since it started on August 1, 2026. Satellites have registered four heat detections over the past 48 hours in the vicinity, illustrating the localized spread of the active front.
This incident unfolds during a broader national fire landscape where 1,268,128 hectares have burned so far in 2026, marking a figure that is 71% below the country's two-decade average. While the broader region typically experiences its fire season from March to June, this August fire remains an active concern locally.
In context
This wildfire burned in Mexico for 2 days. In total it burned about 100 ha (247 acres) — around 1.0 km².
Close to the tropics, fires tend to follow the dry season and are often linked to land-clearing rather than a single summer peak.
The bigger picture in Mexico
Across Mexico, roughly 1,314,455 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 70% below the two-decade average. Data from Copernicus GWIS.
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