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NI · 2016 yearbook

Wildfires in Nicaragua in 2016

39 fires larger than 1,000 hectares in Nicaragua in 2016, with 68,988 hectares burned according to their perimeters. Here is the whole year: what the official record says, when and where it burned and what the weather was like.

Only fires of 1,000 ha or more get an entry: smaller ones are not in the lists or the entry totals, but they are in the GWIS yearly series.

These figures leave out one page with faulty data, under review. They appear in the lists, marked.

The year in a few sentences

  1. According to Copernicus GWIS, 578,028 hectares burned in Nicaragua in 2016: 1.2 times the average of the other years from 2012 to 2024 (467,002 ha).

    Copernicus GWIS · See the data

  2. The worst week was 6 May to 12 May: 163,296 hectares burned in seven days, 28% of the year according to Copernicus GWIS.

    Copernicus GWIS · See the data

  3. The largest fire was the Municipio Prinzapolka fire, which started on 2 May 2016 and burned 4,579 hectares: 7% of the area of the year's 39 fires with a page.

    WorldFires · See the data · Open the fire page

  4. The day of highest danger at a fire this year was 11 February 2016: a Fire Weather Index of 74 (very extreme on the EFFIS scale) at the La Paz Centro (Municipio) fire, calculated by WorldFires from ERA5.

    WorldFires · ERA5 · See the data · Open the fire page

Official burned area
578k ha
Copernicus GWIS · ×1.2 the average
Fires with a page
39
68,988 ha within their perimeters
Largest fire
4,579 ha
Municipio Prinzapolka · 2 May
Highest FWI
74 Very extreme
11 Feb · La Paz Centro (Municipio)

Map of the year

Copernicus GWIS
One circle per fire, sized by its area. Tap one to open its page.

Month by month

Hectares within the perimeters by the month the fire started. Tap a month to see it on the map.

Week by week, against other years

Copernicus GWIS

Cumulative burned area in 2016 over the lowest and highest of each week in the record since 2012, and its average. The bars below show what burned each week. Tap the chart to see a week. The average and the band are the Copernicus GWIS climatology for 2012–2025, which includes 2016 itself.

0 262k 525k 787k Worst week · 163k ha Jan Mar May Jul Sep Nov
2016 average 2012–2025 lowest and highest Hectares each week

Every year since 2012

Copernicus GWIS

Hectares burned per year in the official record. Tap a year to open its yearbook.

2016: 578,028 ha Average of the other years: 467,002 ha

Cite this

Markdown version

Copy the sentences with their source and link. WorldFires data are CC BY 4.0: credit WorldFires and the original source.

- According to Copernicus GWIS, 578,028 hectares burned in Nicaragua in 2016: 1.2 times the average of the other years from 2012 to 2024 (467,002 ha).
- The worst week was 6 May to 12 May: 163,296 hectares burned in seven days, 28% of the year according to Copernicus GWIS.
- The largest fire was the Municipio Prinzapolka fire, which started on 2 May 2016 and burned 4,579 hectares: 7% of the area of the year's 39 fires with a page.
- The day of highest danger at a fire this year was 11 February 2016: a Fire Weather Index of 74 (very extreme on the EFFIS scale) at the La Paz Centro (Municipio) fire, calculated by WorldFires from ERA5.

WorldFires, “Wildfires in Nicaragua in 2016”, https://worldfires.org/en/country/nicaragua/2016 (accessed 10 November 2026). Sources: Copernicus GWIS, WorldFires, WorldFires · ERA5.

Fires of 2016, largest first · 40

Sources and limits

Fire-page areas are satellite-measured perimeters and may differ from official statistics. The yearly and weekly record is the Copernicus GWIS estimate. The FWI is our own calculation from ERA5 at each fire's location: it is not an official danger warning.

Perimeters: Copernicus EFFIS and GWIS (and MTBS, NIFC or NBAC in North America). Hotspots: NASA FIRMS (VIIRS). Weather: Copernicus ERA5 via Open-Meteo. How it is calculated