Capayán fire, August 2020 Capayán, Capital, Ambato
The fire started on 15 August 2020 in Capayán, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,365 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 2th largest in Catamarca since 2016 (of 44 with a page). Number 27 in Argentina in 2020, of 671.
- Burnt area
- 11,365ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 15 Aug 2020 – 21 Aug 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- departments
- Started on
- 15 Aug
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 448
- in a single hotspot: 67 MW
- Danger at start
- 29
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.7GW
- 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 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
16% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11 ha in 2016, 1,479 ha in 2017, 355 ha in 2018.
What happened to each town
-
Capayán where it started6,305 ha reached on 15 Aug1.4 %
-
4,711 ha reached on 15 Aug12 %
-
356 ha reached on 17 Aug0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Aug | 13.5 °C | 19 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 16 Aug | 15.1 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 17 Aug | 14.7 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 18 Aug | 16.7 °C | 14 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 19 Aug | 6.7 °C | 20 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 20 Aug | 6.1 °C | 31 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 21 Aug | 11.1 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 22 Aug after | 13.1 °C | 18 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 23 Aug after | 17.5 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 24 Aug after | 20.3 °C | 15 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 25 Aug after | 18.0 °C | 25 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 26 Aug after | 14.3 °C | 28 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 27 Aug after | 15.4 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 28 Aug after | 21.2 °C | 14 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 29 Aug after | 13.6 °C | 38 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 30 Aug after | 9.7 °C | 50 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 31 Aug after | 8.5 °C | 45 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
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.
Detections table · 448Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Capayán fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 August 2020 and 21 August 2020: 7 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 11,365 hectares (113.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Capayán (6,305 ha, 1.4 %); Capital (4,711 ha, 12 %); Ambato (356 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 16.7 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, class 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
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.