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Caapucu fire, 19 September 2016 Caapucu

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2016, 18:13 UTC

The fire started on 19 September 2016 in Caapucu, Paraguay, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,036 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 32th largest in Paraguarí since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 62 in Paraguay in 2016, of 124.

Burnt area
2,036ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
1day
19 Sept 2016 – 19 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
19 Sept
2016
Heat detections
53
in a single hotspot: 107 MW
Danger at start
11
Low · FWI index
Energy released
861MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Sept19 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

19

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
45km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 12.8 mm on 30 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Caapucu where it started
    2,048 ha reached on 19 Sept
    0.8 %

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)
19 Sept 24.3 °C 36 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
20 Sept after 25.1 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
21 Sept after 31.2 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
22 Sept after 32.4 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Sept after 31.5 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Sept after 22.9 °C 41 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
25 Sept after 25.9 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
26 Sept after 30.5 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Sept after 35.0 °C 10 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Sept after 37.6 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Sept after 30.8 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Sept after 20.2 °C 58 % 36 km/h 12.8 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Sept 2016
After · 26 Sept 2016

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 · 53Every 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 Caapucu fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 September 2016 and 19 September 2016: 1 day 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 2,036 hectares (20.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Caapucu (2,048 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.4 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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
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.