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Caleu Caleu fire, 22 January 2019 Caleu Caleu

Out · last detection 26 Jan 2019, 05:44 UTC

The fire started on 22 January 2019 in Caleu Caleu, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,984 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 19th largest in La Pampa since 2016 (of 190 with a page). Number 4 in Argentina in 2019, of 158.

Burnt area
10,984ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
22 Jan 2019 – 26 Jan 2019
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
22 Jan
2019
Heat detections
513
in a single hotspot: 186 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
8.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Jan 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Jan26 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2223242526

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
54km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

45% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 89 ha in 2016, 5,076 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Caleu Caleu where it started
    10,966 ha reached on 22 Jan
    1.2 %

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)
22 Jan 32.9 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Jan 33.8 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Jan 32.1 °C 57 % 54 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
25 Jan 36.6 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Jan 28.3 °C 22 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Jan after 33.2 °C 53 % 40 km/h 3.3 mm Low 9
28 Jan after 36.0 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Jan after 34.2 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
30 Jan after 28.1 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Jan after 33.6 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Feb after 29.3 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Feb after 24.7 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Feb after 27.9 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
4 Feb after 30.6 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Feb after 33.0 °C 33 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Feb after 34.0 °C 35 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Feb after 28.9 °C 51 % 51 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
8 Feb after 30.3 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
9 Feb after 34.4 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Jan 2019
After · 2 Feb 2019

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 · 513Every 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 22 January 2019 and 26 January 2019: 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 10,984 hectares (109.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Caleu Caleu (10,966 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.