Arauca fire, January 2024 Arauca
The fire started on 13 January 2024 in Arauca, Colombia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,046 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 72th largest in Arauca since 2016 (of 107 with a page). Number 48 in Colombia in 2024, of 73.
The power measured by the satellite is low (15.1 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
- 2,046ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 13 Jan 2024 – 18 Jan 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 13 Jan
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 67
- in a single hotspot: 15 MW
- Danger at start
- 19
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 324MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 23 ha in 2016, 386 ha in 2018, 358 ha in 2019, 457 ha in 2020, 61 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 821 ha that had burned before.
- 457 ha Arauca fire, April 2020 1,810 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 386 ha Arauca fire, March 2018 2,438 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 358 ha Arauca fire, February 2019 1,548 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 61 ha Arauca fire, January 2022 1,594 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 23 ha Arauca fire, March 2016 2,357 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Arauca where it started2,059 ha reached on 13 Jan0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Jan | 34.3 °C | 45 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 14 Jan | 34.6 °C | 44 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 15 Jan | 33.6 °C | 52 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 16 Jan | 34.8 °C | 42 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 17 Jan | 34.6 °C | 44 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 18 Jan | 33.7 °C | 50 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 19 Jan after | 34.7 °C | 44 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 20 Jan after | 34.3 °C | 44 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 21 Jan after | 34.5 °C | 42 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 22 Jan after | 34.3 °C | 43 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 23 Jan after | 34.6 °C | 39 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 24 Jan after | 34.7 °C | 41 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 25 Jan after | 34.6 °C | 38 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 26 Jan after | 34.7 °C | 43 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 27 Jan after | 35.1 °C | 39 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 28 Jan after | 34.4 °C | 37 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 17 January 2024 the air beside the fire reached 19 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 67Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Arauca fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 January 2024 and 18 January 2024: 6 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 2,046 hectares (20.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Arauca (2,059 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 42 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, 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
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.