Skip to content
worldfires
AR · Argentina · →

Alberdi fire, 16 August 2016 Alberdi

Out · last detection 17 Aug 2016, 06:07 UTC

The fire started on 16 August 2016 in Alberdi, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,849 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 190th largest in Santiago del Estero since 2016 (of 320 with a page). Number 180 in Argentina in 2016, of 255.

Burnt area
1,849ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
16 Aug 2016 – 17 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
16 Aug
2016
Heat detections
74
in a single hotspot: 454 MW
Danger at start
58
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
5.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Aug17 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1617

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
52km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Alberdi where it started
    1,856 ha reached on 16 Aug
    0.1 %

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)
16 Aug 38.5 °C 10 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Aug 27.6 °C 9 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
18 Aug after 26.5 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Aug after 28.6 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Aug after 19.6 °C 24 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
21 Aug after 20.9 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Aug after 24.3 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Aug after 26.6 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Aug after 30.2 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Aug after 35.4 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Aug after 38.2 °C 18 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
27 Aug after 29.9 °C 29 % 52 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Aug 2016
After · 24 Aug 2016

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 · 74Every 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 Argentina ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Alberdi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 August 2016 and 17 August 2016: 2 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 1,849 hectares (18.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Alberdi (1,856 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Argentina (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: 911 · 100

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 911 · 100.

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.