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Caleu Caleu fire, 7 February 2019 Caleu Caleu, Hucal

Out · last detection 11 Feb 2019, 18:04 UTC

The fire started on 7 February 2019 in Caleu Caleu, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,780 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 13th largest in La Pampa since 2016 (of 190 with a page). The largest in Argentina in 2019, of 158.

Burnt area
17,780ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
7 Feb 2019 – 11 Feb 2019
Municipalities hit
2
departments
Started on
7 Feb
2019
Heat detections
900
in a single hotspot: 208 MW
Danger at start
13
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
19.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Feb 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Feb11 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

7891011

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
67km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,388 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Caleu Caleu where it started
    12,726 ha reached on 7 Feb
    1.4 %
  2. Hucal
    5,009 ha reached on 8 Feb
    0.8 %

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)
7 Feb 27.4 °C 56 % 47 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 13
8 Feb 29.3 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
9 Feb 34.2 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Feb 31.0 °C 17 % 67 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Feb 19.6 °C 32 % 54 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 16
12 Feb after 23.9 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
13 Feb after 27.6 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
14 Feb after 31.0 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Feb after 34.3 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Feb after 35.3 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Feb after 35.3 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Feb after 35.4 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Feb after 32.7 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Feb after 32.7 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Feb after 29.9 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Jan 2019
After · 18 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 · 900Every 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 7 February 2019 and 11 February 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 17,780 hectares (177.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Caleu Caleu (12,726 ha, 1.4 %); Hucal (5,009 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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

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.