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Anta fire, August 2020 Anta

Out · last detection 19 Aug 2020, 18:02 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2020 in Anta, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,716 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 183th largest in Salta since 2016 (of 231 with a page). Number 540 in Argentina in 2020, of 671.

Burnt area
1,716ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
15 Aug 2020 – 19 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
15 Aug
2020
Heat detections
52
in a single hotspot: 49 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
660MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Aug 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug19 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1516171819

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
60km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 21 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

65% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 517 ha in 2017, 987 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,113 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Anta where it started
    1,716 ha reached on 15 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)
15 Aug 27.4 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Aug 26.2 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Aug 28.3 °C 18 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Aug 32.9 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Aug 21.1 °C 21 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Aug after 16.6 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Aug after 20.6 °C 14 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Aug after 23.1 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Aug after 26.2 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Aug after 30.9 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Aug after 35.9 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Aug after 36.5 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Aug after 28.5 °C 30 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Aug after 30.8 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Aug after 35.7 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Aug 2020
After · 26 Aug 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 · 52Every 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 15 August 2020 and 19 August 2020: 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 1,716 hectares (17.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Anta (1,716 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.