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Benjamín Aceval fire, 16 January 2022 Benjamín Aceval, Villa Hayes

Out · last detection 23 Jan 2022, 18:14 UTC

The fire started on 16 January 2022 in Benjamín Aceval, Paraguay, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,768 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 13th largest in PRESIDENTE HAYES since 2016 (of 738 with a page). Number 2 in Paraguay in 2022, of 185.

Burnt area
20,768ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
16 Jan 2022 – 24 Jan 2022
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
16 Jan
2022
Heat detections
827
in a single hotspot: 85 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
8.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Jan 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jan24 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

1617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
62km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 14.0 mm on 27 Jan.

This area had burned before

40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,331 ha in 2016, 3,282 ha in 2017, 343 ha in 2019, 5,371 ha in 2020, 161 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,340 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Benjamín Aceval where it started
    20,715 ha reached on 16 Jan
    1.9 %
  2. Villa Hayes
    209 ha reached on 16 Jan
    0.0 %

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)
16 Jan 40.2 °C 26 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Jan 40.8 °C 24 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Jan 40.8 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Jan 39.8 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Jan 38.6 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Jan 39.0 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 38
22 Jan 39.9 °C 27 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Jan 40.9 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Jan 41.1 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Jan after 39.9 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Jan after 40.1 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
27 Jan after 30.8 °C 65 % 31 km/h 14.0 mm Very low 2

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Jan 2022
After · 31 Jan 2022

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 · 827Every 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 Paraguay ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Benjamín Aceval fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 January 2022 and 24 January 2022: 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 20,768 hectares (207.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Benjamín Aceval (20,715 ha, 1.9 %); Villa Hayes (209 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.1 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Paraguay (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: 132 · 911

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 132 · 911.

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 (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.