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Abancay fire, 11 July 2020 Abancay, La Convencion

Out · last detection 19 Jul 2020, 17:46 UTC

The fire started on 11 July 2020 in Abancay, Peru, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,071 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 27th largest in Apurímac since 2016 (of 30 with a page). Number 27 in Peru in 2020, of 34.

Burnt area
1,071ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
11 Jul 2020 – 19 Jul 2020
Municipalities hit
2
provinces
Started on
11 Jul
2020
Heat detections
43
in a single hotspot: 48 MW
Danger at start
20
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
770MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Jul 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Jul19 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

1112131416171819

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

22°high
40km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 26 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 25 Jul.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Abancay 13,299 inhabitants where it started
    987 ha reached on 11 Jul
    0.3 %
  2. La Convencion 7,651 inhabitants
    88 ha reached on 18 Jul
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
11 Jul 21.9 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
12 Jul 22.5 °C 34 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
13 Jul 21.2 °C 39 % 37 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 16
14 Jul 20.9 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 18
15 Jul 21.4 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
16 Jul 21.5 °C 43 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 19
17 Jul 19.6 °C 44 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
18 Jul 22.0 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
19 Jul 21.7 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 20
20 Jul after 22.4 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm High 22
21 Jul after 22.3 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
22 Jul after 22.1 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
23 Jul after 22.0 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
24 Jul after 21.3 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
25 Jul after 19.2 °C 42 % 36 km/h 1.2 mm Low 10

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 4 Jul 2020
After · 26 Jul 2020

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 43Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Peru ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Abancay fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 July 2020 and 19 July 2020: 9 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,071 hectares (10.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Abancay (987 ha, 0.3 %); La Convencion (88 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 22.5 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Peru (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 116 · 105

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 116 · 105.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.