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Arenal fire, March 2016 Norosí, Río Viejo, Arenal

Out · last detection 1 Apr 2016, 18:31 UTC

The fire started on 8 March 2016 in Arenal, Colombia, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 28,340 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Bolívar since 2016 (of 19 with a page). Number 2 in Colombia in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
28,340ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
24days
8 Mar 2016 – 31 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
4
municipalities
Started on
8 Mar
2016
Heat detections
1,319
in a single hotspot: 206 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
9.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Mar31 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

89101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
34km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 53 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.2 mm on 1 Apr.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Norosí
    15,835 ha reached on 6 Mar
    38 %
  2. Río Viejo
    10,422 ha reached on 6 Mar
    12 %
  3. Arenal where it started
    2,184 ha reached on 2 Mar
    4.7 %
  4. Tiquiso
    85 ha reached on 6 Mar
    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)
2 Mar 39.7 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
3 Mar 36.9 °C 38 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
4 Mar 37.3 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
5 Mar 37.5 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
6 Mar 38.1 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
7 Mar 34.7 °C 47 % 29 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 20
8 Mar 38.1 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
9 Mar 39.3 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Mar 40.0 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Mar 38.0 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 40
12 Mar 39.9 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Mar 38.8 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Mar 38.0 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Mar 38.4 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Mar 39.7 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Mar 37.9 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.7 mm High 27
18 Mar 37.4 °C 40 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
19 Mar 38.2 °C 38 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Mar 38.2 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 Mar 37.2 °C 38 % 22 km/h 0.6 mm High 26
22 Mar 37.1 °C 39 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
23 Mar 39.7 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Mar 39.2 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Mar 39.8 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Mar 40.3 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Mar 40.1 °C 31 % 25 km/h 0.3 mm High 38
28 Mar 39.1 °C 29 % 26 km/h 1.3 mm High 27
29 Mar 39.4 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.9 mm High 31
30 Mar 37.1 °C 40 % 29 km/h 0.9 mm High 25
31 Mar 37.3 °C 41 % 23 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 17
1 Apr after 37.2 °C 38 % 23 km/h 6.2 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Mar 2016
After · 7 Apr 2016

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 · 1,319Every 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 Arenal fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 March 2016 and 31 March 2016: 24 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 28,340 hectares (283.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Norosí (15,835 ha, 38 %); Río Viejo (10,422 ha, 12 %); Arenal (2,184 ha, 4.7 %); Tiquiso (85 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.3 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very 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.