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Arauca fire, 17 February 2019 Arauca, Cravo Norte

Out · last detection 21 Feb 2019, 18:29 UTC

The fire started on 17 February 2019 in Arauca, Colombia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,345 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 54th largest in Arauca since 2016 (of 107 with a page). Number 66 in Colombia in 2019, of 131.

The power measured by the satellite is low (26.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,345ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
17 Feb 2019 – 21 Feb 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
17 Feb
2019
Heat detections
55
in a single hotspot: 27 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
298MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Feb 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Feb21 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

17192021

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
42km/h · peak gust
35%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,634 ha in 2016, 1,500 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,174 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Arauca where it started
    2,296 ha reached on 17 Feb
    0.4 %
  2. Cravo Norte
    64 ha
    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)
17 Feb 34.3 °C 43 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
18 Feb 32.7 °C 42 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Feb 31.2 °C 46 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 Feb 34.0 °C 37 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Feb 34.6 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Feb after 33.8 °C 42 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Feb after 34.4 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Feb after 33.7 °C 33 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Feb after 34.1 °C 33 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Feb after 34.5 °C 32 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Feb after 34.0 °C 36 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Feb after 34.6 °C 39 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Mar after 35.9 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Mar after 34.9 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Mar after 34.7 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Feb 2019
After · 28 Feb 2019

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 · 55Every 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 Colombia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Arauca fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 February 2019 and 21 February 2019: 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 2,345 hectares (23.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Arauca (2,296 ha, 0.4 %); Cravo Norte (64 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 42 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 Colombia (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: 123 · 119

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 123 · 119.

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 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.