Skip to content
worldfires
AR · Argentina · →

Caleu Caleu fire, 31 January 2018 Caleu Caleu

Out · last detection 1 Feb 2018, 18:35 UTC

The fire started on 31 January 2018 in Caleu Caleu, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,699 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 44th largest in La Pampa since 2016 (of 190 with a page). Number 17 in Argentina in 2018, of 179.

Burnt area
5,699ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
31 Jan 2018 – 1 Feb 2018
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
31 Jan
2018
Heat detections
362
in a single hotspot: 125 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Feb 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Jan1 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

311

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
45km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

30% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 791 ha in 2016, 946 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Caleu Caleu where it started
    5,688 ha reached on 31 Jan
    0.6 %

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)
31 Jan 30.3 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Feb 36.6 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Feb after 36.1 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Feb after 36.2 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Feb after 37.4 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.7 mm High 33
5 Feb after 38.6 °C 31 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Feb after 36.4 °C 36 % 54 km/h 0.8 mm Very high 40
7 Feb after 30.1 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
8 Feb after 33.9 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Feb after 25.6 °C 17 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
10 Feb after 23.1 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Feb after 23.3 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Jan 2018
After · 8 Feb 2018

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 · 362Every 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 Argentina ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Caleu Caleu fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 January 2018 and 1 February 2018: 2 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 5,699 hectares (57.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Caleu Caleu (5,688 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very high.
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

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 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.