File:Fires in the Yucatan Peninsula (MODIS 2019-04-14).jpg

English: The fire season on the Yucatan Peninsula predictably runs from March 1 to the end of May, when the region is at its hottest and driest. These conditions make the vegetation tinder-dry, susceptible to igniting from the least spark. As early as March 13, 2019, local news reported that the state of Yucatan Civil Protection (Procivy) was responding to an average of 10 accidental fires each day, with a caution the numbers of fires tend to increase through May. The state of Yucatan, Mexico is located on the north of the Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mexican states of Campeche to the southwest and Quintana Roo to the southeast. Belize lies south of Quintana Roo.

While many of the dry-season fires are ignited by accident or by lightning, some are set deliberately for reasons such as burning rubbish or by farmers to renew pasture or clear fields for planting before the rainy season begins. Even though such fires are closely managed to fulfil a specific purpose, they sometimes escape control and become wildfires. Wildfires, agricultural fire, and trash fire all send smoke into the air, potentially creating hazardous conditions for livestock and people.

On May 12, 2019, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of smoke and haze over the Yucatan Peninsula.

Each red hot spot marks an area where the thermal bands on the instrument detected hot temperatures. When combined with typical smoke, as in this image, such hot spots are diagnostic for actively burning fire. Fires burn across the entire Yucatan Peninsula, and there are many. According to Global Fire Watch, from April 4 – 11, there were 2,838 fire alerts in Campeche, 991 in Quintana Roo, 1,701 in Yucatan, and 893 in Belize.