Carrillo fire, March 2026 Carrillo
The fire started on 21 March 2026 in Carrillo, Costa Rica, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,057 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 101th largest in Provincia Guanacaste since 2016 (of 111 with a page). Number 22 in Costa Rica in 2026, of 24.
The power measured by the satellite is low (29.6 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
- 1,057ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 21 Mar 2026 – 27 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- cantons
- Started on
- 21 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 22
- in a single hotspot: 30 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 127MW
- 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 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.7 mm on 2 Apr.
This area had burned before
50% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 13 ha in 2017, 522 ha in 2024.
What happened to each town
-
Carrillo where it started1,063 ha reached on 20 Mar1.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Mar | 34.8 °C | 34 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 22 Mar | 34.8 °C | 38 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 23 Mar | 37.5 °C | 26 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 24 Mar | 37.8 °C | 24 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 25 Mar | 36.8 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 26 Mar | 36.9 °C | 31 % | 43 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very high 42 |
| 27 Mar | 37.4 °C | 26 % | 39 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 44 |
| 28 Mar after | 34.6 °C | 42 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 29 Mar after | 35.2 °C | 40 % | 63 km/h | 0.6 mm | Very high 38 |
| 30 Mar after | 36.8 °C | 35 % | 50 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 38 |
| 31 Mar after | 35.5 °C | 42 % | 51 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very high 40 |
| 1 Apr after | 35.8 °C | 41 % | 40 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 35 |
| 2 Apr after | 34.5 °C | 43 % | 30 km/h | 2.7 mm | Moderate 13 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 25 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 21 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 22Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 12,049 haCarrillo11 February 2022 · 24 days · 10 km away
- 15,880 haCarrilloJanuary 2026 · 56 days · 11 km away
- 5,865 haCarrilloMarch 2020 · 24 days · 14 km away
- 5,578 haSanta Cruz5 March 2019 · 24 days · 16 km away
- 4,618 haCarrilloMarch 2017 · 22 days · 18 km away
- 6,612 haCarrillo21 March 2019 · 17 days · 20 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Carrillo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 March 2026 and 27 March 2026: 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 1,057 hectares (10.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Carrillo (1,063 ha, 1.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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
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.