Skip to content
worldfires
AR · Argentina · →

Anta fire, August 2021 Anta

Out · last detection 21 Aug 2021, 18:21 UTC

The fire started on 18 August 2021 in Anta, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,599 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 209th largest in Salta since 2016 (of 231 with a page). Number 197 in Argentina in 2021, of 217.

Burnt area
1,599ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
18 Aug 2021 – 20 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
18 Aug
2021
Heat detections
126
in a single hotspot: 512 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
6.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Aug 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Aug20 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

18192021

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
54km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 55 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

31% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 176 ha in 2018, 735 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 501 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Anta where it started
    1,608 ha reached on 18 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)
18 Aug 37.9 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Aug 38.9 °C 20 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Aug 27.1 °C 35 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Aug after 27.6 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Aug after 33.9 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Aug after 26.4 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Aug after 22.9 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Aug after 23.6 °C 16 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Aug after 26.1 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Aug after 27.4 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Aug after 29.7 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Aug after 30.8 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Aug after 34.0 °C 25 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Aug 2021
After · 27 Aug 2021

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 · 126Every 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 18 August 2021 and 20 August 2021: 3 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 1,599 hectares (16.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Anta (1,608 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.