Caapucu fire, June 2020 Quiindy, Caapucu
The fire started on 11 June 2020 in Caapucu, Paraguay, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,010 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 34th largest in Paraguarí since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 273 in Paraguay in 2020, of 424.
- Burnt area
- 2,010ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 11 Jun 2020 – 18 Jun 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 11 Jun
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 73
- in a single hotspot: 72 MW
- Danger at start
- 3
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 658MW
- 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 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 16.8 mm on 25 Jun.
This area had burned before
59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 242 ha in 2016, 560 ha in 2017, 9 ha in 2018, 750 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,190 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
1,267 ha reached on 15 Jun1.9 %
-
Caapucu where it started751 ha reached on 11 Jun0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Jun | 30.3 °C | 58 % | 46 km/h | 1.2 mm | Very low 3 |
| 12 Jun | 30.9 °C | 53 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 13 Jun | 25.1 °C | 42 % | 53 km/h | 5.9 mm | Very low 2 |
| 14 Jun | 18.5 °C | 46 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 15 Jun | 28.4 °C | 62 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 16 Jun | 29.5 °C | 51 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 17 Jun | 29.8 °C | 47 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 18 Jun | 29.6 °C | 51 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 19 Jun after | 31.0 °C | 52 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 20 Jun after | 31.9 °C | 47 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 21 Jun after | 31.0 °C | 47 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 22 Jun after | 31.2 °C | 47 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 23 Jun after | 31.4 °C | 42 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 24 Jun after | 29.0 °C | 47 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 25 Jun after | 23.8 °C | 70 % | 53 km/h | 16.8 mm | Very low 1 |
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.
Detections table · 73Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 16,508 haVilla OlivaFebruary 2022 · 29 days · 11 km away
- 21,230 haVilla OlivaJuly 2020 · 14 days · 14 km away
- 7,903 haVilla Oliva28 August 2018 · 3 days · 20 km away
- 22,209 haVilleta20 August 2020 · 13 days · 24 km away
- 13,060 haVilla OlivaFebruary 2020 · 19 days · 24 km away
- 58,707 haVilla OlivaDecember 2021 · 44 days · 27 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Caapucu fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 June 2020 and 18 June 2020: 8 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 2,010 hectares (20.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Quiindy (1,267 ha, 1.9 %); Caapucu (751 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 42 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, 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.