Skip to content
worldfires
CO · Colombia · →

Becerrill fire, 21 February 2019 Becerrill, Agustín Codazzi

Out · last detection 1 Mar 2019, 06:34 UTC

The fire started on 21 February 2019 in Becerrill, Colombia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,498 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in Cesar since 2016 (of 60 with a page). Number 12 in Colombia in 2019, of 131.

Burnt area
4,498ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
21 Feb 2019 – 1 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
21 Feb
2019
Heat detections
160
in a single hotspot: 69 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Mar 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Feb1 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

21222324252627281

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
44km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 21 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.7 mm on 10 Mar.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Becerrill where it started
    3,497 ha reached on 19 Feb
    2.8 %
  2. Agustín Codazzi
    1,029 ha reached on 22 Feb
    0.6 %

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)
19 Feb 35.2 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Feb 34.9 °C 43 % 24 km/h 0.3 mm High 24
21 Feb 35.8 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
22 Feb 35.5 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
23 Feb 36.0 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
24 Feb 35.8 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 Feb 35.3 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Feb 34.6 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Feb 35.5 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
28 Feb 37.0 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Mar 36.7 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
2 Mar after 34.4 °C 44 % 22 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
3 Mar after 36.4 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
4 Mar after 35.3 °C 40 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Mar after 35.9 °C 38 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
6 Mar after 34.8 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Mar after 35.5 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
8 Mar after 36.1 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Mar after 36.8 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Mar after 37.0 °C 36 % 30 km/h 2.7 mm Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Feb 2019
After · 8 Mar 2019

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 · 160Every 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 Becerrill fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 February 2019 and 1 March 2019: 9 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 4,498 hectares (45.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Becerrill (3,497 ha, 2.8 %); Agustín Codazzi (1,029 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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
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.