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Cauquenes fire, 19 January 2017 Cauquenes, Pelluhue

Out · last detection 28 Jan 2017, 18:55 UTC

The fire started on 19 January 2017 in Cauquenes, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 24,866 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Región del Maule since 2016 (of 52 with a page). Number 5 in Chile in 2017, of 56.

Burnt area
24,866ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
19 Jan 2017 – 27 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
19 Jan
2017
Heat detections
1,131
in a single hotspot: 350 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
27.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Jan27 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

192021222325262728

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
68km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Cauquenes where it started
    25,634 ha reached on 18 Jan
    12 %
  2. Pelluhue
    8 ha
    0.0 %

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)
18 Jan 32.6 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Jan 33.0 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Jan 34.4 °C 15 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Jan 34.5 °C 12 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
22 Jan 32.7 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Jan 30.6 °C 27 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Jan 30.0 °C 29 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Jan 35.2 °C 18 % 68 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
26 Jan 40.9 °C 12 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
27 Jan 34.2 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Jan after 34.2 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Jan after 32.4 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
30 Jan after 28.4 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Jan after 29.0 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Feb after 30.6 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Feb after 25.8 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Feb after 22.8 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
4 Feb after 23.0 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
5 Feb after 28.8 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Feb after 29.6 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
7 Feb after 29.0 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Feb after 24.4 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Feb after 25.6 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Jan 2017
After · 3 Feb 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 · 1,131Every 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 Chile ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cauquenes fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 January 2017 and 27 January 2017: 9 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 24,866 hectares (248.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cauquenes (25,634 ha, 12 %); Pelluhue (8 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.9 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 68 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Chile (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: 130 (CONAF) · 132

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 130 (CONAF) · 132.

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 ADM3 (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.