Wildfire in Latin America

Argentina declares fire emergency as wind threatens Patagonia containment efforts.
Wildfires have devastated more than 110,000 acres of Argentina’s pristine Patagonia forests, including a UNESCO World Heritage site home to 2,600-year-old trees.

The wildfires, among the worst to hit the drought-stricken Patagonia region in decades, have devastated Argentina’s native forests in the last month and a half, forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents and tourists. The inferno was still spreading.

Ten Argentine provinces are under alert for wildfire risk, as several fire fronts in Chubut and wider Patagonia have already burned more than 20,000 hectares.

The Federal Emergency Agency of Argentina issued warnings of fire danger not only in the Patagonian provinces of Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut and Santa Cruz, but also in La Pampa, the Cuyo region (San Juan, Mendoza, San Luis), and in the southern reaches of Córdoba and Buenos Aires.

Recent rainfall has helped temper some of the flames, assisting firefighters and emergency crews in better controlling certain fronts, though the threat of renewed activity persists. 

The response involves hundreds of personnel and aerial support, reflecting the scale of the wildfire emergency, with authorities continuing operations to prevent flare-ups should weather conditions worsen.

Regional cooperation has also come into play, with Chile sending two light aircraft to assist Argentina in combating fires in the Los Alerces area.

The main blaze began on January 5 in Puerto Patriada, near Epuyén and El Hoyo, consuming extensive native forest, brush and grassland along with infrastructure and homes. While several fire sites have been controlled or contained, the active fire at Los Alerces National Park remains a focus of ongoing suppression efforts.

According to media, as of 27 March, at least four people died in Mexico State and a total of 400 wildfires, with 116 still active fires, have burnt more than 13,000 ha.

Emergency crews are working to contain multiple wildfires burning in central and southern Mexico. 

Temperatures over 40 C (104 F) in southern and western Mexico and over 30 C (86 F) across much of the country. 

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) acquired a true-color image of dozens of fires burning across southern Mexico and Guatemala. 

In Guatemala, 430 VIIRS fire alerts have been reported so far in 2024 considering high confidence alerts only. This total is low compared to previous years going back to 2012. 

In Guatemala, the region with the most significant number of fire alerts was Chiquimula, with 12 fire alerts. This represents 6.8% of all alerts detected in Guatemala and is unusually high compared to the number of fires in the same period going back to 2012.

Several wildfires have been burning across Mexico since 15 March, causing casualties and damage. The major ongoing active fire is across Guerrero and Mexico States, and according to the JRC Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), this wildfire has burnt an area of approximately 9,100 ha.

The Amazon Rainforest is on fire. 
Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research announced that 2,940 fires had burned in the Brazilian Amazon over that month—a record-breaking number for February. 

The 2022 New Mexico wildfire season is an ongoing series of wildfires burning throughout the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of December 13, 2022, 904,422 acres (366,007 ha) had burned across the state. 

The burned acreage figure for 2022 is well above the 1995-2015 average of approximately 270,000 acres burned annually. 

Several factors contributed to the severe wildfire season. Most of the state is experiencing extreme to exceptional drought as part of a broader severe drought in the North American West, fueled by climate change.

A reduced winter snowpack, long periods of higher-than-normal temperatures, and sustained strong winds have resulted in extreme fire conditions and several major incidents.

Since 2010, Guatemala has lost 45.8 ha of natural forest, equivalent to 24.1 Mt of CO₂ emissions.

Since 2010, Mexico has lost 3 ha of tree cover, equivalent to 1.22 kt of CO₂ emissions.

Since 2010, Brazil has lost 3.23 Mha of natural forest, equivalent to 2.00 Gt of CO₂ emissions.

Starting in May the Black Fire, and ending in late July, burned in the Gila National Forest northeast of Silver City. The fire consumed some 325,000 acres and became the second-largest wildfire in state history.  

Thousands of state residents were forced to evacuate for extended periods, and the fires produced smoke plumes with severe effects on air quality and health throughout New Mexico.

The season has seen a large number of significant wildfires.

In early April, the McBride Fire destroyed over 200 structures and killed two people. 

The Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire grew to become the largest fire in New Mexico history.[9] It destroyed over 900 structures.

In Mexico, the most fires recorded in a year with 10.

In Guatemala, the most tree cover loss was to fires with 53.3 kha lost to fires — 30% of all tree cover loss for that year.

In Brazil the most tree cover loss is due to fires with 2.38 Mha lost to fires — 44% of all tree cover loss for that year.

In Guatemala, the most fires recorded in a year were in 2013, with 2,814.

Del Centro in Mexico had 8.27 kha of tree cover, extending over 16% of its land area. 

Guatemala had 6.91 Mha of natural forest, extending over 64% of its land area.

Brazil had 492 Mha of natural forest, extending over 59% of its land area.

Since the 1980s, the Amazon Basin has been warming at an average of 0.27 degrees Celsius per decade. Some parts, including the forest’s central and southeast regions, have been warming even faster.