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Anta fire, October 2018 Anta, Almirante Brown

Out · last detection 9 Oct 2018, 17:11 UTC

The fire started on 5 October 2018 in Anta, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,856 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 66th largest in Salta since 2016 (of 231 with a page). Number 57 in Argentina in 2018, of 179.

Burnt area
2,856ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
5 Oct 2018 – 9 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
2
departments
Started on
5 Oct
2018
Heat detections
93
in a single hotspot: 317 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Oct9 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

56789

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
41km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 14.2 mm on 10 Oct.

This area had burned before

64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,791 ha in 2016, 523 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,828 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Anta where it started
    2,609 ha reached on 5 Oct
    0.1 %
  2. Almirante Brown
    269 ha reached on 5 Oct
    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)
5 Oct 29.9 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
6 Oct 31.9 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Oct 34.8 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
8 Oct 39.4 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Oct 34.6 °C 41 % 41 km/h 3.0 mm Moderate 13
10 Oct after 22.3 °C 59 % 50 km/h 14.2 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Sept 2018
After · 16 Oct 2018

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 · 93Every 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 Anta fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 October 2018 and 9 October 2018: 5 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 2,856 hectares (28.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Anta (2,609 ha, 0.1 %); Almirante Brown (269 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.4 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class High.
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.