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Cobán fire, April 2023 Cobán

Out · last detection 29 Apr 2023, 19:25 UTC

The fire started on 27 April 2023 in Cobán, Guatemala, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,017 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 24th largest in Alta Verapaz since 2016 (of 24 with a page). Number 24 in Guatemala in 2023, of 26.

The power measured by the satellite is low (13.3 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,017ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
27 Apr 2023 – 29 Apr 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
27 Apr
2023
Heat detections
26
in a single hotspot: 13 MW
Danger at start
8
Low · FWI index
Energy released
144MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Apr 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Apr29 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

272829

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
31km/h · peak gust
38%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 12.5 mm on 30 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. Cobán 250,675 inhabitants where it started
    1,023 ha reached on 26 Apr
    0.4 %

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)
27 Apr 34.8 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.8 mm Low 8
28 Apr 33.9 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 13
29 Apr 34.8 °C 38 % 31 km/h 2.8 mm Low 6
30 Apr after 27.3 °C 65 % 33 km/h 12.5 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Apr 2023
After · 6 May 2023

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 · Copernicus

On 29 April 2023 the air beside the fire reached 98 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 68: 4.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak98 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM10142 µg/m³
Optical depth2.87
25262728293012
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 26Every 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 Cobán fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 April 2023 and 29 April 2023: 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 1,017 hectares (10.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cobán (1,023 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 13, class Moderate.
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.