How long did the Bariloche fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 December 2024 to 13 February 2025 (50 days). The perimeter dates it from 26 December 2024 to 6 February 2025.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 15,077 hectares (150.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Bariloche (15,075 ha, 2.8 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 29.7 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 75 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, class High.

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.

AR · Argentina · 2024-12-26 → 2025-02-13

Bariloche fire, December 2024 Bariloche

Out · last detection 13 Feb 2025, 19:07 UTC

The fire started on 26 December 2024 in Bariloche, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 50 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,077 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the 6th largest in Río Negro since 2016 (of 97 with a page). Number 6 in Argentina in 2024, of 141.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Bariloche · 2021 Bariloche · 2022

Burnt area: 15,077ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 50days; 26 Dec 2024 – 13 Feb 2025
Municipalities hit: 1; departments
Started on: 26 Dec; 2024
Heat detections: 1,866; in a single hotspot: 408 MW
Danger at start: 13; Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power: 917MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Dec13 Feb

Play back 13 Feb 2025

How it evolved, day by day

26 Dec 2 Jan 9 Jan 18 Jan 22 Jan 27 Jan 3 Feb 10 Feb

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

The weather it burned in

30°high

75km/h · peak gust

22%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 15.8 mm on 22 Feb.

This area had burned before

30% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,481 ha in 2021, 891 ha in 2022, 742 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,521 ha that had burned before.

3,153 ha Bariloche fire, December 2021 8,044 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 9.5% of the area of London (151 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

Bariloche where it started

15,075 ha reached on 26 Dec

2.8 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025

Built-up area< 0.1 ha

Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
26 Dec	27.7 °C	39 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
27 Dec	26.4 °C	37 %	23 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 11
28 Dec	24.7 °C	42 %	40 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 12
29 Dec	26.8 °C	32 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
30 Dec	17.7 °C	67 %	70 km/h	8.0 mm	Very low 0
31 Dec	12.7 °C	77 %	51 km/h	2.8 mm	Very low 0
1 Jan	18.7 °C	53 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 1
2 Jan	25.1 °C	45 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 4
3 Jan	26.8 °C	50 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 6
4 Jan	26.1 °C	39 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
5 Jan	27.7 °C	30 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
6 Jan	25.2 °C	27 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
7 Jan	25.6 °C	34 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
8 Jan	21.5 °C	58 %	59 km/h	1.4 mm	Very low 5
9 Jan	23.2 °C	39 %	41 km/h	0.3 mm	Low 9
10 Jan	25.2 °C	31 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
11 Jan	26.6 °C	39 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
12 Jan	24.5 °C	31 %	68 km/h	0.5 mm	Moderate 19
13 Jan	21.9 °C	25 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
14 Jan	17.9 °C	38 %	49 km/h	6.5 mm	Very low 1
15 Jan	16.5 °C	71 %	61 km/h	3.3 mm	Very low 0
16 Jan	20.4 °C	44 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 2
17 Jan	19.9 °C	44 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 6
18 Jan	25.1 °C	29 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
19 Jan	26.5 °C	29 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
20 Jan	23.3 °C	34 %	64 km/h	0.7 mm	Moderate 15
21 Jan	21.2 °C	45 %	42 km/h	0.8 mm	Low 9
22 Jan	23.7 °C	39 %	55 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 14
23 Jan	17.0 °C	57 %	58 km/h	7.2 mm	Very low 0
24 Jan	17.8 °C	51 %	50 km/h	1.9 mm	Very low 1
25 Jan	24.8 °C	36 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 5
26 Jan	24.1 °C	40 %	70 km/h	3.0 mm	Very low 3
27 Jan	17.1 °C	42 %	55 km/h	0.4 mm	Low 6
28 Jan	25.6 °C	26 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
29 Jan	29.7 °C	22 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
30 Jan	28.2 °C	27 %	63 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
31 Jan	22.7 °C	34 %	48 km/h	0.6 mm	Moderate 15
1 Feb	23.4 °C	26 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
2 Feb	15.1 °C	77 %	75 km/h	6.5 mm	Very low 0
3 Feb	13.7 °C	62 %	49 km/h	2.3 mm	Very low 0
4 Feb	21.2 °C	46 %	35 km/h	1.1 mm	Very low 2
5 Feb	17.9 °C	70 %	69 km/h	2.1 mm	Very low 2
6 Feb	18.4 °C	51 %	53 km/h	0.4 mm	Very low 3
7 Feb	25.3 °C	45 %	64 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 9
8 Feb	24.1 °C	25 %	41 km/h	0.6 mm	Moderate 12
9 Feb	28.0 °C	27 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
10 Feb	17.1 °C	55 %	74 km/h	4.4 mm	Very low 2
11 Feb	16.8 °C	48 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 3
12 Feb	21.3 °C	40 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 7
13 Feb	24.8 °C	30 %	39 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 12
14 Feb after	22.4 °C	42 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
15 Feb after	18.1 °C	50 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
16 Feb after	15.0 °C	60 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 9
17 Feb after	22.8 °C	38 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
18 Feb after	25.0 °C	42 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
19 Feb after	25.4 °C	37 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
20 Feb after	20.0 °C	46 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
21 Feb after	21.9 °C	48 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
22 Feb after	16.9 °C	74 %	55 km/h	15.8 mm	Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 19 Dec 2024

After · 20 Feb 2025

Before After

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 · Copernicus

On 1 February 2025 the air beside the fire reached 93 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 42: 2.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak93 µg/m³

Days over the guideline7 days

PM1094 µg/m³

Optical depth0.62

WHO 15

242526272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031123456789

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 1,866Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Argentina ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bariloche fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 December 2024 to 13 February 2025 (50 days). The perimeter dates it from 26 December 2024 to 6 February 2025.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 15,077 hectares (150.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Bariloche (15,075 ha, 2.8 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 29.7 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 75 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, class High.
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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Servicio Nacional de Manejo del Fuego ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

25 October 2026 Last day with fire: 6 February 2025 → 13 February 2025.

RSS Changes to this page

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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.

How we know this

Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 26 December 2024 to 6 February 2025. 1,866 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
We have not matched this page with any official record.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.

Where it burned