How long did the Caleu Caleu fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 December 2016 and 8 January 2017: 14 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 231,424 hectares (2,314.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Caleu Caleu (230,509 ha, 25 %); Puán (1,150 ha, 0.2 %); Villarino (88 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 38.4 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 69 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.

Where does this data come from?

From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Argentina (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

AR · Argentina · 2016-12-26 → 2017-01-08

Caleu Caleu fire, 26 December 2016 Caleu Caleu, Puán, Villarino

Out · last detection 8 Jan 2017, 04:29 UTC

The fire started on 26 December 2016 in Caleu Caleu, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 231,424 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the largest fire in La Pampa since 2016 (of 190 with a page). The largest in Argentina in 2016, of 255.

Burnt area: 231,424ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 14days; 26 Dec 2016 – 8 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit: 3; departments
Started on: 26 Dec; 2016
Heat detections: 10,902; in a single hotspot: 1,529 MW
Danger at start: 43; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 305.3GW; sum of detected power

Play back 8 Jan 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Dec8 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

26272829303112345678

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

69km/h · peak gust

12%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.2 mm on 22 Jan.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 268 ha in 2016.

16 ha Caleu Caleu fire, December 2016 47,322 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Caleu Caleu where it started

230,509 ha reached on 25 Dec

25 %
Puán 15,603 inhabitants

1,150 ha reached on 4 Jan

0.2 %
Villarino 30,745 inhabitants

88 ha reached on 3 Jan

0.0 %

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)
21 Dec	29.3 °C	12 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
22 Dec	30.9 °C	14 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
23 Dec	31.6 °C	18 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
24 Dec	34.6 °C	21 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
25 Dec	33.3 °C	15 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
26 Dec	30.4 °C	18 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
27 Dec	33.9 °C	14 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
28 Dec	36.8 °C	15 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
29 Dec	37.5 °C	19 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
30 Dec	38.4 °C	14 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
31 Dec	33.9 °C	14 %	58 km/h	1.2 mm	Very high 39
1 Jan	28.9 °C	16 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
2 Jan	33.1 °C	20 %	57 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
3 Jan	28.6 °C	13 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
4 Jan	27.1 °C	16 %	61 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
5 Jan	23.4 °C	16 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
6 Jan	34.0 °C	26 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
7 Jan	33.2 °C	21 %	61 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
8 Jan	32.0 °C	28 %	55 km/h	1.6 mm	High 30
9 Jan after	27.8 °C	17 %	69 km/h	1.0 mm	Very high 44
10 Jan after	27.2 °C	16 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
11 Jan after	29.3 °C	17 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
12 Jan after	34.9 °C	19 %	59 km/h	0.6 mm	Very high 50
13 Jan after	28.0 °C	15 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
14 Jan after	31.4 °C	21 %	42 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 43
15 Jan after	32.7 °C	21 %	37 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 40
16 Jan after	35.1 °C	22 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
17 Jan after	31.2 °C	13 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
18 Jan after	30.2 °C	18 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
19 Jan after	36.5 °C	14 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
20 Jan after	37.8 °C	19 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
21 Jan after	35.3 °C	20 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
22 Jan after	27.8 °C	38 %	49 km/h	6.2 mm	Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 19 Dec 2016

After · 15 Jan 2017

Before After

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 · 10,902Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Argentina ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Caleu Caleu fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 December 2016 and 8 January 2017: 14 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 231,424 hectares (2,314.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Caleu Caleu (230,509 ha, 25 %); Puán (1,150 ha, 0.2 %); Villarino (88 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 38.4 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 69 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Argentina (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 · 100

Servicio Nacional de Manejo del Fuego ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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 · 100.

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 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.

Where it burned