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Chicamán fire, March 2020 Chicamán, Cubulco

Out · last detection 18 Apr 2020, 20:00 UTC

The fire started on 28 March 2020 in Chicamán, Guatemala, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,539 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Alta Verapaz since 2016 (of 24 with a page). Number 6 in Guatemala in 2020, of 40.

Burnt area
4,539ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
28 Mar 2020 – 18 Apr 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
28 Mar
2020
Heat detections
219
in a single hotspot: 121 MW
Danger at start
10
Low · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Apr 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Mar18 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

2829303134789101112131415161718

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
44km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 26 Apr.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Chicamán where it started
    4,331 ha reached on 28 Mar
    7.6 %
  2. Cubulco 46,909 inhabitants
    232 ha reached on 12 Apr
    0.3 %

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)
28 Mar 28.3 °C 46 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
29 Mar 27.6 °C 47 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
30 Mar 26.8 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.7 mm Low 8
31 Mar 29.5 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm Low 11
1 Apr 27.7 °C 48 % 33 km/h 10.0 mm Very low 1
2 Apr 28.9 °C 45 % 33 km/h 2.7 mm Very low 1
3 Apr 29.8 °C 39 % 35 km/h 1.2 mm Very low 4
4 Apr 31.0 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.3 mm Low 10
5 Apr 29.2 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.6 mm Low 11
6 Apr 30.0 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
7 Apr 29.0 °C 40 % 40 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 13
8 Apr 30.5 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
9 Apr 31.4 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 16
10 Apr 31.4 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
11 Apr 31.4 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
12 Apr 32.5 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
13 Apr 32.4 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
14 Apr 30.8 °C 35 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
15 Apr 28.7 °C 44 % 39 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 18
16 Apr 28.2 °C 50 % 44 km/h 2.3 mm Low 5
17 Apr 29.1 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
18 Apr 30.7 °C 37 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
19 Apr after 31.6 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
20 Apr after 32.1 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
21 Apr after 28.6 °C 45 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
22 Apr after 31.2 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 19
23 Apr after 33.8 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
24 Apr after 32.1 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
25 Apr after 31.6 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 Apr after 29.0 °C 44 % 53 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 15

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Mar 2020
After · 25 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 · 219Every 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 Guatemala ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chicamán fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 March 2020 and 18 April 2020: 22 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 4,539 hectares (45.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chicamán (4,331 ha, 7.6 %); Cubulco (232 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.5 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guatemala (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: 122 · 123 · 1566

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 122 · 123 · 1566.

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.