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Cedros fire, 15 March 2020 El Porvenir, Cedros

Out · last detection 22 Apr 2020, 07:36 UTC

The fire started on 15 March 2020 in Cedros, Honduras, and satellites saw it burning for 38 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,183 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Francisco Morazán since 2016 (of 177 with a page). Number 12 in Honduras in 2020, of 174.

Burnt area
7,183ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
38days
15 Mar 2020 – 21 Apr 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
15 Mar
2020
Heat detections
637
in a single hotspot: 81 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
6.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Apr 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Mar21 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

151618192022232425262728293112345678910111213141516171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
46km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.8 mm on 1 May.

This area had burned before

42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,405 ha in 2017, 1,337 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,024 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. El Porvenir
    4,876 ha reached on 19 Mar
    12 %
  2. Cedros where it started
    2,349 ha reached on 15 Mar
    3.0 %

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)
15 Mar 33.7 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Mar 33.1 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
17 Mar 34.0 °C 19 % 32 km/h 1.0 mm High 30
18 Mar 32.5 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Mar 33.4 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Mar 33.5 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Mar 33.4 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.6 mm High 32
22 Mar 30.8 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.6 mm High 26
23 Mar 32.8 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
24 Mar 33.2 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Mar 34.2 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Mar 33.8 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
27 Mar 34.2 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Mar 35.2 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Mar 35.2 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Mar 32.7 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 Mar 35.6 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Apr 34.5 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.3 mm High 37
2 Apr 36.9 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 46
3 Apr 36.5 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Apr 36.5 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Apr 36.5 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Apr 36.8 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Apr 35.6 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Apr 36.6 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Apr 36.6 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Apr 39.2 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Apr 36.6 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
12 Apr 35.7 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Apr 37.0 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Apr 36.5 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Apr 36.7 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Apr 36.9 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Apr 34.6 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Apr 35.5 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Apr 35.1 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Apr 36.7 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Apr 35.3 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Apr after 36.0 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Apr after 36.2 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Apr after 37.6 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Apr after 35.4 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Apr after 36.4 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Apr after 35.3 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 42
28 Apr after 33.1 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.9 mm High 33
29 Apr after 34.7 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
30 Apr after 34.3 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm High 37
1 May after 30.7 °C 44 % 31 km/h 3.8 mm Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Mar 2020
After · 28 Apr 2020

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 · 637Every 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 Honduras ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cedros fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 March 2020 and 21 April 2020: 38 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 7,183 hectares (71.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: El Porvenir (4,876 ha, 12 %); Cedros (2,349 ha, 3.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Honduras (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.

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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 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.