Baures fire, 24 October 2023 Magdalena, Baures
The fire started on 24 October 2023 in Baures, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 30,869 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 24th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 902 with a page). Number 5 in Bolivia in 2023, of 248.
- Burnt area
- 30,869ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 27days
- 24 Oct 2023 – 19 Nov 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 24 Oct
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 3,202
- in a single hotspot: 433 MW
- Danger at start
- 8
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 35.2GW
- 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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.9 mm on 20 Nov.
This area had burned before
89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 692 ha in 2016, 1,066 ha in 2017, 2,301 ha in 2018, 12,167 ha in 2020, 21,374 ha in 2021, 16,784 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 27,533 ha that had burned before.
- 12,149 ha Magdalena fire, September 2022 35,295 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 10,732 ha Magdalena fire, September 2020 30,494 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,462 ha Magdalena fire, September 2021 25,480 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,076 ha Magdalena fire, October 2021 5,295 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,612 ha Magdalena fire, August 2022 4,746 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 827 ha Magdalena fire, September 2021 23,784 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 726 ha Baures fire, October 2021 7,023 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 143 ha Baures fire, September 2021 4,670 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Magdalena 12,785 inhabitants17,075 ha1.2 %
-
14,006 ha0.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Oct | 36.5 °C | 43 % | 46 km/h | 3.6 mm | Low 8 |
| 25 Oct | 35.0 °C | 53 % | 40 km/h | 11.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 26 Oct | 30.6 °C | 65 % | 39 km/h | 15.4 mm | Very low 0 |
| 27 Oct | 34.7 °C | 47 % | 40 km/h | 6.5 mm | Very low 1 |
| 28 Oct | 33.5 °C | 46 % | 46 km/h | 2.5 mm | Very low 3 |
| 29 Oct | 32.1 °C | 64 % | 49 km/h | 22.9 mm | Very low 1 |
| 30 Oct | 33.1 °C | 47 % | 36 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very low 4 |
| 31 Oct | 33.2 °C | 52 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 6 |
| 1 Nov | 30.5 °C | 65 % | 27 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very low 5 |
| 2 Nov | 35.8 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 3 Nov | 36.3 °C | 41 % | 34 km/h | 1.2 mm | Low 9 |
| 4 Nov | 28.4 °C | 50 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 5 Nov | 35.1 °C | 39 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 6 Nov | 36.7 °C | 41 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 7 Nov | 35.6 °C | 48 % | 36 km/h | 1.6 mm | Low 8 |
| 8 Nov | 36.8 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 1.6 mm | Low 9 |
| 9 Nov | 36.2 °C | 43 % | 32 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 10 Nov | 32.3 °C | 58 % | 35 km/h | 16.2 mm | Very low 1 |
| 11 Nov | 36.9 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 0.5 mm | Low 8 |
| 12 Nov | 38.3 °C | 35 % | 39 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 13 Nov | 36.8 °C | 40 % | 33 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 14 Nov | 35.3 °C | 45 % | 34 km/h | 0.8 mm | Low 11 |
| 15 Nov | 37.5 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 16 Nov | 37.3 °C | 40 % | 48 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 17 Nov | 38.5 °C | 34 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 18 Nov | 38.6 °C | 33 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 19 Nov | 37.7 °C | 38 % | 56 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 20 Nov after | 30.4 °C | 67 % | 23 km/h | 3.9 mm | Very low 2 |
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 21 November 2023 the air beside the fire reached 252 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 178: 12 times the WHO daily 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 · 3,202Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 30,494 haMagdalena28 September 2020 · 23 days · 8 km away
- 21,879 haMagdalena8 October 2025 · 19 days · 9 km away
- 35,295 haMagdalena17 September 2022 · 21 days · 11 km away
- 23,784 haMagdalena16 September 2021 · 19 days · 12 km away
- 25,480 haMagdalena19 September 2021 · 16 days · 17 km away
- 32,085 haBaures12 August 2024 · 22 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Baures fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 October 2023 and 19 November 2023: 27 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 30,869 hectares (308.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Magdalena (17,075 ha, 1.2 %); Baures (14,006 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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
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.