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Berlin fire, March 2019 Berlin, San Agustin

Out · last detection 30 Mar 2019, 07:30 UTC

The fire started on 22 March 2019 in Berlin, El Salvador, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,235 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

Number 2 in El Salvador in 2019, of 14.

Burnt area
2,235ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
22 Mar 2019 – 30 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
22 Mar
2019
Heat detections
96
in a single hotspot: 47 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
779MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Mar 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Mar30 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

222324252627282930

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
45km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.5 mm on 5 Apr.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Berlin where it started
    2,151 ha reached on 15 Mar
    16 %
  2. San Agustin
    98 ha reached on 17 Mar
    1.1 %

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)
15 Mar 35.4 °C 35 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Mar 38.5 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Mar 38.0 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Mar 36.3 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Mar 35.2 °C 33 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Mar 35.9 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Mar 36.2 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Mar 36.0 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Mar 35.5 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Mar 36.3 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Mar 36.9 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Mar 37.5 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
27 Mar 38.3 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Mar 37.3 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Mar 35.2 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Mar 34.9 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Mar after 33.4 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Apr after 36.1 °C 35 % 49 km/h 0.4 mm High 36
2 Apr after 37.0 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
3 Apr after 36.2 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Apr after 37.0 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Apr after 33.7 °C 46 % 31 km/h 3.5 mm Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Mar 2019
After · 6 Apr 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 · 96Every 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 El Salvador ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Berlin fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 March 2019 and 30 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 2,235 hectares (22.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Berlin (2,151 ha, 16 %); San Agustin (98 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of El Salvador (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: 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.

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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 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 (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.