Benjamín Aceval fire, 22 August 2023 Benjamín Aceval, Villa Hayes
The fire started on 22 August 2023 in Benjamín Aceval, Paraguay, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,912 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 158th largest in PRESIDENTE HAYES since 2016 (of 738 with a page). Number 39 in Paraguay in 2023, of 209.
- Burnt area
- 3,912ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 22 Aug 2023 – 28 Aug 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 22 Aug
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 138
- in a single hotspot: 43 MW
- Danger at start
- 39
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- 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: 31.6 mm on 1 Sept.
This area had burned before
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,622 ha in 2016, 1,429 ha in 2017, 310 ha in 2018, 2,737 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,503 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Benjamín Aceval where it started3,651 ha reached on 22 Aug0.3 %
-
272 ha reached on 23 Aug0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Aug | 37.0 °C | 31 % | 64 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 23 Aug | 37.2 °C | 32 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 24 Aug | 25.9 °C | 59 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 25 Aug | 23.6 °C | 47 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 26 Aug | 24.0 °C | 29 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 27 Aug | 23.5 °C | 36 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 28 Aug | 26.8 °C | 37 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 29 Aug after | 30.2 °C | 36 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 30 Aug after | 32.5 °C | 36 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 31 Aug after | 32.5 °C | 44 % | 30 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 27 |
| 1 Sept after | 35.3 °C | 40 % | 58 km/h | 31.6 mm | Low 8 |
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 23 August 2023 the air beside the fire reached 34 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.5 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 · 138Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 18,588 haVilla Hayes30 September 2020 · 5 days · 6 km away
- 12,183 haBenjamín Aceval24 September 2020 · 10 days · 16 km away
- 8,702 haBenjamín Aceval15 October 2023 · 5 days · 20 km away
- 8,443 haBenjamín Aceval7 November 2023 · 6 days · 23 km away
- 13,300 haBenjamín Aceval9 March 2020 · 9 days · 26 km away
- 27,409 haBenjamín Aceval23 September 2020 · 21 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Benjamín Aceval fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 August 2023 and 28 August 2023: 7 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 3,912 hectares (39.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Benjamín Aceval (3,651 ha, 0.3 %); Villa Hayes (272 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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
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.