2024 Wildfire Season in Mexico: Over 100 Intense Blazes Fueled by Dry and Warm Conditions

Wildfires engulfed different parts of Mexico, wreaking havoc across agricultural land, including planting crops. The continuance of these wildland fires was confirmed by satellite observations from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which showed that wildfire smoke has spread across southern Mexico. The growing fires not only threaten livelihood in the agricultural sector in the region but also local ecosystems and rural communities.

Amid the 2024 wildfire season in Mexico, more than 100 intense blazes, fueled by dry and warm conditions, have occurred in the south, according to NASA. These fires are common across Central America and southern Mexico during their dry season roughly between December and May. During previous fire seasons, wildfires have spread closer to major urban areas, including near the town of San Lucas Quiavini in Oaxaca and the capital Mexico City.

2024 Wildfire Season in Mexico

Earlier this week, the NASA Earth Observatory showed an image of the brunt of the 2024 wildfire season in Mexico where wildfire smoke has been seen near the border of Oaxaca and Chiapas in southern Mexico. Since the highest point of the fire season in Mexico occurs from March to May, NASA states that the country has already entered its peak season in March 2024. This means forest fires could continue until May, resulting in more frequent and intensified wildland fires across the region.

The image of the raging wildfires in Mexico was captured by NASA's Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) on Landsat 9 on March 27 at 10:30 a.m. local time. According to Mexico's National Forestry Commission, there were 120 active wildfires burning across Mexico on March 27, citing preliminary data that shows the flames during that day burnt more than 7,000 hectares (27 square miles) in 19 out of the 31 states of the country.

Wildfires in the Americas

Over the past several decades, wildfires across the region have impacted agricultural areas in northwestern Guatemala such as in 2007. During the same period in 2003, forest fires ravaged Nicaragua for three months and it eventually spread to southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. This has resulted in widespread wildfire smoke spreading over the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the Pacific Ocean, according to NASA.

Outside Central America, wildfires have also been reported across South America in recent years. According to a report in February 2024, wildfires earlier this year have killed more than 130 people in Chile. Meanwhile, similar events were reported outside the capital city of Bogota in Colombia in January. In Argentina, a wildfire destroyed a forest listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Previous research has pointed to the connection between climate change and wildfires, with the latter frequently occurring amid favorable weather and climatic conditions. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, multiple studies have confirmed that climate change has lead to increased wildfire frequency, season length, and burned area.