Chalileo fire, December 2024 Chalileo, General Alvear
The fire started on 23 December 2024 in Chalileo, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,051 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 142th largest in La Pampa since 2016 (of 190 with a page). Number 77 in Argentina in 2024, of 141.
- Burnt area
- 2,051ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 23 Dec 2024 – 24 Dec 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- departments
- Started on
- 23 Dec
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 63
- in a single hotspot: 40 MW
- Danger at start
- 59
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 330MW
- 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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.8 mm on 29 Dec.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Chalileo where it started1,751 ha reached on 23 Dec0.2 %
-
General Alvear 52,379 inhabitants299 ha reached on 23 Dec0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Dec | 33.7 °C | 10 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 24 Dec | 31.4 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 25 Dec after | 33.3 °C | 13 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 26 Dec after | 34.7 °C | 13 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 27 Dec after | 37.0 °C | 11 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 28 Dec after | 36.3 °C | 14 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 29 Dec after | 35.3 °C | 29 % | 52 km/h | 8.8 mm | Moderate 16 |
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 21 December 2024 the air beside the fire reached 5 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 · 63Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 9,069 haGeneral AlvearJanuary 2025 · 1 day · 12 km away
- 7,866 haChalileo21 December 2016 · 2 days · 17 km away
- 11,797 haChalileo27 December 2025 · 3 days · 19 km away
- 5,343 haGeneral Alvear16 November 2025 · 2 days · 23 km away
- 5,251 haChalileo26 December 2025 · 2 days · 30 km away
- 6,731 haChalileo25 November 2025 · 1 day · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chalileo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 December 2024 and 24 December 2024: 2 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 2,051 hectares (20.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chalileo (1,751 ha, 0.2 %); General Alvear (299 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Argentina (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 · 100
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 (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.