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Carrillo fire, 13 March 2018 Carrillo, Santa Cruz

Out · last detection 19 Mar 2018, 19:27 UTC

The fire started on 13 March 2018 in Carrillo, Costa Rica, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,633 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 25th largest in Provincia Guanacaste since 2016 (of 111 with a page). Number 3 in Costa Rica in 2018, of 11.

The power measured by the satellite is low (26.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,633ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
13 Mar 2018 – 19 Mar 2018
Municipalities hit
2
cantons
Started on
13 Mar
2018
Heat detections
131
in a single hotspot: 27 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
649MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Mar 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Mar19 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

13141516171819

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
68km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,082 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Carrillo where it started
    2,510 ha reached on 13 Mar
    4.2 %
  2. Santa Cruz
    139 ha reached on 19 Mar
    0.1 %

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)
13 Mar 34.3 °C 41 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Mar 32.9 °C 46 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Mar 32.3 °C 47 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Mar 32.9 °C 42 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Mar 32.4 °C 44 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Mar 33.5 °C 38 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
19 Mar 34.8 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Mar after 33.8 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Mar after 33.1 °C 39 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Mar after 32.0 °C 39 % 68 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
23 Mar after 32.2 °C 40 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Mar after 31.3 °C 48 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Mar after 32.7 °C 42 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Mar after 32.6 °C 45 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
27 Mar after 32.4 °C 39 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Mar after 33.0 °C 41 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Mar after 33.7 °C 39 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Mar after 32.6 °C 45 % 48 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
31 Mar after 32.4 °C 38 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Apr after 33.5 °C 37 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Apr after 35.0 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Apr after 35.2 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Mar 2018
After · 26 Mar 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 · 131Every 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 13 March 2018 and 19 March 2018: 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 2,633 hectares (26.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Carrillo (2,510 ha, 4.2 %); Santa Cruz (139 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 68 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, class Very 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
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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.