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Baures fire, 2 October 2020 Baures

Out · last detection 19 Oct 2020, 17:21 UTC

The fire started on 2 October 2020 in Baures, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,773 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 47th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 902 with a page). Number 23 in Bolivia in 2020, of 211.

Burnt area
20,773ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
2 Oct 2020 – 18 Oct 2020
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
2 Oct
2020
Heat detections
864
in a single hotspot: 140 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
8.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Oct 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Oct18 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2345789101113141516171819

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
37km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 25 Oct.

This area had burned before

55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11,492 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Baures 7,488 inhabitants where it started
    20,874 ha
    1.2 %

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)
29 Sept 36.7 °C 38 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
30 Sept 35.7 °C 40 % 28 km/h 0.4 mm High 26
1 Oct 37.1 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
2 Oct 36.9 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Oct 36.3 °C 38 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Oct 38.1 °C 35 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Oct 36.8 °C 41 % 18 km/h 0.5 mm High 28
6 Oct 34.9 °C 44 % 27 km/h 0.7 mm High 22
7 Oct 36.9 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
8 Oct 38.6 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Oct 38.7 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Oct 38.6 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Oct 36.5 °C 35 % 37 km/h 1.8 mm High 22
12 Oct 34.3 °C 43 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
13 Oct 34.9 °C 41 % 23 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 16
14 Oct 38.0 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.8 mm High 27
15 Oct 35.4 °C 37 % 24 km/h 3.7 mm Low 11
16 Oct 30.9 °C 57 % 30 km/h 6.9 mm Very low 3
17 Oct 35.0 °C 48 % 24 km/h 0.5 mm Low 9
18 Oct 34.6 °C 45 % 26 km/h 1.7 mm Low 9
19 Oct after 29.8 °C 63 % 37 km/h 6.3 mm Very low 2
20 Oct after 34.4 °C 47 % 21 km/h 0.7 mm Low 5
21 Oct after 35.0 °C 41 % 24 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 13
22 Oct after 33.3 °C 55 % 21 km/h 1.5 mm Low 8
23 Oct after 31.0 °C 66 % 23 km/h 11.5 mm Very low 0
24 Oct after 35.0 °C 48 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm Low 6
25 Oct after 33.0 °C 57 % 41 km/h 1.7 mm Low 5

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Sept 2020
After · 25 Oct 2020

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 · 864Every 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 Bolivia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Baures fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 October 2020 and 18 October 2020: 17 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 20,773 hectares (207.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Baures (20,874 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 37 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 Bolivia (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: 119 · 110

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 119 · 110.

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 ADM3 (Public Domain). 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.