Caapucu fire, September 2026 Caapucu
The fire started on 5 September 2026 in Caapucu, Paraguay, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,509 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 67th largest in Paraguarí since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 77 in Paraguay in 2026, of 80.
The power measured by the satellite is low (17.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 1,509ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 5 Sept 2026 – 9 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 5 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 31
- in a single hotspot: 18 MW
- Danger at start
- 11
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 200MW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.4 mm on 10 Sept.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,063 ha in 2016, 889 ha in 2018, 888 ha in 2019, 1,020 ha in 2020, 254 ha in 2022, 414 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,504 ha that had burned before.
- 1,020 ha Caapucu fire, March 2020 4,366 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 889 ha Caapucu fire, August 2018 1,636 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 394 ha Caapucu fire, September 2019 1,699 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 270 ha Caapucu fire, January 2023 1,621 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Caapucu where it started1,517 ha reached on 5 Sept0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Sept | 20.4 °C | 35 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 6 Sept | 16.5 °C | 39 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 7 Sept | 18.7 °C | 39 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 8 Sept | 24.6 °C | 50 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 9 Sept | 24.0 °C | 68 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 10 Sept after | 26.2 °C | 61 % | 24 km/h | 6.4 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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 10 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 31Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 4,366 haCaapucu8 March 2020 · 8 days · 3 km away
- 4,067 haCaapucu15 March 2022 · 5 days · 12 km away
- 4,617 haSan Juan Bautista16 January 2022 · 3 days · 31 km away
- 6,009 haCaapucu2 August 2020 · 7 days · 38 km away
- 6,197 haSan Miguel16 January 2022 · 3 days · 39 km away
- 5,259 haTacuaras7 February 2023 · 18 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Caapucu fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 September 2026 and 9 September 2026: 5 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 1,509 hectares (15.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Caapucu (1,517 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 24.6 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 11, class Moderate.
- 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.