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EC · Ecuador · →

Chone fire, December 2019 Chone

Out · last detection 10 Dec 2019, 18:52 UTC

The fire started on 8 December 2019 in Chone, Ecuador, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,694 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 6th largest in Manabí since 2016 (of 21 with a page). Number 9 in Ecuador in 2019, of 17.

Burnt area
1,694ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
8 Dec 2019 – 10 Dec 2019
Municipalities hit
1
cantons
Started on
8 Dec
2019
Heat detections
42
in a single hotspot: 81 MW
Danger at start
15
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
381MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Dec 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Dec10 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

810

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
36km/h · peak gust
51%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 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. Chone where it started
    1,705 ha reached on 8 Dec
    0.6 %

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)
8 Dec 31.3 °C 52 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 15
9 Dec 30.0 °C 62 % 28 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 14
10 Dec 32.7 °C 51 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
11 Dec after 28.7 °C 56 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
12 Dec after 31.7 °C 50 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
13 Dec after 32.0 °C 52 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
14 Dec after 31.6 °C 54 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
15 Dec after 32.3 °C 50 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
16 Dec after 30.8 °C 55 % 28 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 17
17 Dec after 31.4 °C 51 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
18 Dec after 32.5 °C 51 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
19 Dec after 33.0 °C 50 % 36 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 19
20 Dec after 32.6 °C 50 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Dec 2019
After · 17 Dec 2019

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 · 42Every 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 Ecuador ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chone fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 December 2019 and 10 December 2019: 3 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 1,694 hectares (16.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chone (1,705 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 51 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 15, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Ecuador (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
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 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 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.