In short: We read 74 of INSIVUMEH’s daily volcano bulletins, every other day from 1 May to 24 September 2026, and counted every community named in a sentence about ashfall. Fuego ash was assigned to named communities in 38 bulletins and Santiaguito ash in 38. The names repeat: Panimaché (19), San Marcos Palajunoj (26), Loma Linda (17), Morelia (15), Sangre de Cristo (15). Larger towns did not: Antigua Guatemala, Ciudad Vieja, Guatemala City, Mixco, Quetzaltenango, Panajachel, Chimaltenango and Escuintla were named in no ashfall sentence. Alotenango came up once. The sample covers the rainy season only, so treat it as May to September evidence, not a yearly map.
This page answers one question: if I live in town X, how often does ash land on it? What ash does to you and your roof, which mask to use and the La Aurora closure record are on volcanic ash today. City air readings are on air quality today. Neither page is repeated here.
How we counted
INSIVUMEH, Guatemala’s national institute of seismology, volcanology, meteorology and hydrology, publishes a Boletín Vulcanológico Diario each day, with one page for each of three volcanoes (Fuego, Santiaguito and Pacaya) and a page of recommendations. Each volcano page describes the day’s activity and, when ash is falling or expected, names where. The bulletin for 24 September 2026, for example, says of Fuego: “Se espera caída débil de ceniza fina sobre La Soledad, El Rosario y sus alrededores”.
We downloaded the bulletin for every second day from 1 May to 24 September 2026 (74 bulletins; when a day was missing we took the next day). The PDFs are images, so we read them by OCR, then kept every sentence that mentions ash (ceniza) and a place. Aviation guidance and recommendations were counted separately. A community counts once per bulletin, however many times it is named. INSIVUMEH’s earlier bulletins were not at the same address when we tried dates in December 2025 and in January, March and April 2026, so the sample starts in May.
The communities that get named
Fuego (ashfall named in 38 of 74 bulletins):
| Community | Bulletins naming it for ashfall |
|---|---|
| Panimaché (I and II) | 19 |
| Morelia | 15 |
| Sangre de Cristo | 15 |
| Santa Sofía | 13 |
| El Porvenir (Yepocapa side) | 12 |
| San Pedro Yepocapa | 12 |
| Finca El Recreo | 11 |
| Montellano | 5 |
| Finca Palo Verde | 3 |
| Alotenango (vicinity), aldea El Porvenir (Alotenango), San Cayetano, El Rodeo, El Zapote | 1 each (29 May) |
| Quisache, Yucales, Pochuta, La Soledad, El Rosario | 1 each |
Santiaguito (ashfall named in 38 of 74 bulletins):
| Community | Bulletins naming it for ashfall |
|---|---|
| San Marcos Palajunoj | 26 |
| Loma Linda | 17 |
| La Tranquilidad | 11 |
| Parcelamiento Monte Claro (Monteclaro) | 5 |
| Monte María | 4 |
| Finca El Faro | 3 |
| La Florida | 3 |
| Montebello (Monte Bello) | 2 |
| Santa María de Jesús, Calaguache, Belén, Nuevo San Carlos | 1 each (29 May) |
| Finca Powilonia, Rosario, Bohemia, Nueva Delfina, Helvetia, La Suiza | 1 each (23 August) |
| Tuibul, the Patrocinio farms | 1 each |
Many other bulletins describe ash without a place name: communities on the west flank, farms and nearby communities. Those are not counted in the tables. Pacaya produced no ashfall mentions in our sample, and the recommendations page gave aviation ash guidance for Fuego and Santiaguito only.
The towns people move to
| Town | Named in an ashfall sentence, 74 bulletins |
|---|---|
| Antigua Guatemala | 0 |
| Ciudad Vieja | 0 |
| Alotenango | 1 (29 May: ash near Alotenango) |
| Acatenango (the town) | 0 |
| Guatemala City, Mixco | 0 |
| Quetzaltenango (Xela) | 0 |
| Panajachel | 0 |
| Chimaltenango, Escuintla | 0 |
Zero here means not named in the bulletins we read, not never gets ash. A bulletin names the communities its observers report or expect. The Fuego eruptive phase of 3 to 5 August 2026 shows the limit: the special bulletins for that phase reported ash columns of 5,000 to 7,000 m above sea level and heavy ashfall in San Pedro Yepocapa (see the Fuego page), and the daily bulletin is not the only record.
Which way the ash goes
The last page of every bulletin tells aviation which direction to expect ash in. For Fuego, in all 74 bulletins:
| Direction in the guidance | Bulletins |
|---|---|
| West, southwest, south or northwest only (alone or combined) | 62 |
| Includes east (east, east and northeast, east and southeast) | 8 |
| North (alone or with northwest) | 4 |
For Santiaguito, 71 of 74 gave only west, southwest or northwest directions; one said northwest and north, one east and southeast, and one east. This is what the wind did in the 2026 rainy season. It is not a forecast for the dry months, when the bulletins before May were not available to us.
What to watch day to day
- Today’s ash: INSIVUMEH’s daily bulletin is the only source that names communities; our volcano status today page tracks it, and the Fuego, Santiaguito and Pacaya pages carry the history.
- The air: air quality today gives modelled city readings and explains why ash days are when that table is least reliable.
- Flights and the ash cloud: volcanic ash today reads the Washington VAAC advisories and keeps the La Aurora closure record.
- Your house: the ash-on-the-roof limits and cleaning rules are on volcanic ash today; policies that cover volcanic events are compared on home and earthquake insurance.
- Ground shaking: earthquakes today.
Sources
- INSIVUMEH, Boletín Vulcanológico Diario: 74 bulletins from 1 May to 24 September 2026 (PDFs at insivumeh.gob.gt/wp-content/uploads/YYYY/MM/BVD-YYYY-MM-DD.pdf), downloaded 24 September 2026, read by OCR (Tesseract, Spanish).
- Special bulletins for the 3 to 5 August 2026 Fuego phase, as summarised on our Fuego page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does volcanic ash fall on Antigua Guatemala?
Not in the sample we read. Across 74 INSIVUMEH daily bulletins, every other day from 1 May to 24 September 2026, Antigua Guatemala was never named in a sentence about ashfall. The Fuego communities named most often were Panimaché (19 bulletins), Morelia and Sangre de Cristo (15 each), Santa Sofía (13), and El Porvenir on the Yepocapa side and San Pedro Yepocapa (12 each). Alotenango was named once, on 29 May. The sample covers the rainy season only, so it says nothing about the dry months.
Does Guatemala City get volcanic ash?
Guatemala City was not named for ashfall in any of the 74 daily bulletins we read (every other day, 1 May–24 Sep 2026, rainy season only, machine-read OCR). The city’s volcanic-ash record is mostly about La Aurora airport, and five of the seven sourced ash closures were caused by Pacaya, not Fuego; the full closure list is on our volcanic ash page. In our sample, INSIVUMEH gave aviation ash-dispersal guidance for Fuego and Santiaguito only, not for Pacaya.
Does ash from Santiaguito reach Quetzaltenango (Xela)?
In the 74 bulletins we read (every other day, 1 May–24 Sep 2026, rainy season only, machine-read OCR), Santiaguito’s ashfall was named on villages and farms beside the volcano: San Marcos Palajunoj (26 bulletins), Loma Linda (17), La Tranquilidad (11), Parcelamiento Monte Claro (5) and Monte María (4). Quetzaltenango itself never appeared in an ashfall sentence. On 29 May 2026 a bulletin reported Santiaguito ash dispersing east and southeast about 20 km, with ashfall in Santa María de Jesús, Calaguache, Belén and Nuevo San Carlos.
Which way does Fuego's ash usually blow?
On the last page of each daily bulletin, INSIVUMEH tells aviation which way to expect Fuego’s ash. In all 74 bulletins (May to September 2026), 62 gave only west, southwest, south or northwest directions (alone or combined), 8 included an easterly direction and 4 said north. That describes the rainy season in 2026; the wind changes by season and by day.
Where can I check today's ash and air quality?
For today, use INSIVUMEH’s daily bulletin, which names the communities expected to receive ash, and our live pages: volcano status today, the volcanic ash advisories page, and the air quality page. The air quality page’s city numbers are modelled, and it warns that ash days are when its table is most likely to be wrong, because a plume is narrow and fast-moving.
