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Cedros fire, 23 March 2020 Cedros, El Porvenir

Out · last detection 1 May 2020, 19:16 UTC

The fire started on 23 March 2020 in Cedros, Honduras, and satellites saw it burning for 39 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,933 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Francisco Morazán since 2016 (of 177 with a page). Number 9 in Honduras in 2020, of 174.

Burnt area
7,933ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
39days
23 Mar 2020 – 30 Apr 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
23 Mar
2020
Heat detections
1,032
in a single hotspot: 88 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
8.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 May 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Mar30 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

2324252627282930311234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829301

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
44km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.1 mm on 7 May.

This area had burned before

28% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 462 ha in 2017, 1,377 ha in 2018, 538 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,229 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Cedros where it started
    4,392 ha reached on 19 Mar
    5.6 %
  2. El Porvenir
    3,587 ha reached on 19 Mar
    8.6 %

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)
19 Mar 30.9 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
20 Mar 31.7 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
21 Mar 31.3 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.4 mm High 26
22 Mar 29.2 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.4 mm High 25
23 Mar 30.6 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
24 Mar 31.3 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
25 Mar 31.9 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
26 Mar 31.3 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
27 Mar 32.3 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Mar 33.4 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Mar 33.0 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Mar 31.3 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Mar 33.6 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Apr 33.2 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
2 Apr 36.2 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Apr 35.0 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Apr 35.4 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Apr 34.8 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Apr 34.6 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Apr 33.5 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Apr 34.3 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Apr 34.7 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Apr 37.5 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Apr 35.1 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Apr 34.8 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Apr 36.0 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Apr 34.8 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Apr 35.2 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Apr 34.7 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Apr 32.5 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Apr 33.8 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Apr 33.9 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Apr 35.6 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Apr 34.5 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 Apr 34.6 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 43
23 Apr 35.1 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Apr 36.3 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Apr 34.3 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Apr 34.5 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Apr 32.8 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Apr 31.6 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Apr 33.8 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Apr 32.9 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
1 May after 29.7 °C 43 % 33 km/h 3.6 mm Low 7
2 May after 32.3 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
3 May after 33.6 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 May after 34.5 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 May after 32.6 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 May after 33.7 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.5 mm High 34
7 May after 32.0 °C 33 % 36 km/h 4.1 mm Low 10

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Mar 2020
After · 7 May 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 · 1,032Every 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 23 March 2020 and 30 April 2020: 39 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 7,933 hectares (79.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cedros (4,392 ha, 5.6 %); El Porvenir (3,587 ha, 8.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 44 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 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.

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 (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.