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Carrillo fire, April 2017 Carrillo, Santa Cruz

Out · last detection 16 Apr 2017, 19:46 UTC

The fire started on 10 April 2017 in Carrillo, Costa Rica, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,484 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 57th largest in Provincia Guanacaste since 2016 (of 111 with a page). Number 4 in Costa Rica in 2017, of 10.

Burnt area
1,484ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
10 Apr 2017 – 16 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
2
cantons
Started on
10 Apr
2017
Heat detections
60
in a single hotspot: 53 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
290MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Apr16 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

10111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
53km/h · peak gust
35%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 17 Apr.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Carrillo where it started
    893 ha reached on 10 Apr
    1.5 %
  2. Santa Cruz
    601 ha reached on 10 Apr
    0.4 %

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)
10 Apr 34.6 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Apr 34.5 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Apr 35.1 °C 38 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Apr 33.6 °C 42 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Apr 33.2 °C 46 % 53 km/h 0.5 mm High 35
15 Apr 33.9 °C 45 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Apr 34.0 °C 45 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Apr after 34.7 °C 46 % 40 km/h 2.3 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Apr 2017
After · 23 Apr 2017

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 · 60Every 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 Costa Rica ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Carrillo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 April 2017 and 16 April 2017: 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 1,484 hectares (14.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Carrillo (893 ha, 1.5 %); Santa Cruz (601 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Costa Rica (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

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.

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 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). 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.