Benjamín Aceval fire, 7 November 2023 Benjamín Aceval
The fire started on 7 November 2023 in Benjamín Aceval, Paraguay, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,443 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 47th largest in PRESIDENTE HAYES since 2016 (of 738 with a page). Number 12 in Paraguay in 2023, of 209.
- Burnt area
- 8,443ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 7 Nov 2023 – 12 Nov 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 7 Nov
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 253
- in a single hotspot: 123 MW
- Danger at start
- 14
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.6GW
- 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: 14.9 mm on 14 Nov.
This area had burned before
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,178 ha in 2016, 2,343 ha in 2017, 1,215 ha in 2018, 5,504 ha in 2020, 933 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,201 ha that had burned before.
- 3,277 ha Benjamín Aceval fire, March 2020 13,300 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,662 ha Benjamín Aceval fire, September 2020 7,403 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,127 ha Benjamín Aceval fire, October 2017 2,359 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 933 ha Benjamín Aceval fire, December 2021 2,148 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 781 ha Benjamín Aceval fire, September 2018 1,744 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 376 ha Benjamín Aceval fire, October 2020 2,000 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 150 ha Benjamín Aceval fire, March 2020 1,537 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 39 ha Benjamín Aceval fire, September 2020 12,183 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Benjamín Aceval where it started8,469 ha reached on 7 Nov0.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Nov | 38.3 °C | 31 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 8 Nov | 39.3 °C | 34 % | 42 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 9 Nov | 33.6 °C | 49 % | 45 km/h | 5.1 mm | Very low 4 |
| 10 Nov | 38.9 °C | 33 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 11 Nov | 41.6 °C | 25 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 12 Nov | 43.0 °C | 24 % | 61 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 13 Nov after | 35.7 °C | 34 % | 50 km/h | 9.7 mm | Very low 5 |
| 14 Nov after | 26.4 °C | 76 % | 47 km/h | 14.9 mm | Very low 0 |
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 14 November 2023 the air beside the fire reached 105 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 58: 3.9 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 · 253Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Benjamín Aceval fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 November 2023 and 12 November 2023: 6 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 8,443 hectares (84.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Benjamín Aceval (8,469 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 43.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 62 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 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.