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Colón fire, February 2020 Colón, Los Arabos

Out · last detection 2 Mar 2020, 06:49 UTC

The fire started on 29 February 2020 in Colón, Cuba, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,331 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 18th largest in Matanzas since 2016 (of 34 with a page). Number 19 in Cuba in 2020, of 53.

Burnt area
1,331ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
29 Feb 2020 – 2 Mar 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
29 Feb
2020
Heat detections
31
in a single hotspot: 109 MW
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
646MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Mar 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Feb2 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

2912

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
52km/h · peak gust
35%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. Colón where it started
    1,306 ha reached on 29 Feb
    2.1 %
  2. Los Arabos
    32 ha reached on 29 Feb
    0.0 %

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)
29 Feb 22.4 °C 42 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
1 Mar 24.5 °C 42 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
2 Mar 29.3 °C 35 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
3 Mar after 32.1 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
4 Mar after 33.4 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
5 Mar after 33.4 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
6 Mar after 31.7 °C 43 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
7 Mar after 26.2 °C 50 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
8 Mar after 24.1 °C 42 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Mar after 26.5 °C 50 % 59 km/h 0.3 mm High 28
10 Mar after 27.7 °C 48 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
11 Mar after 29.0 °C 40 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
12 Mar after 28.9 °C 49 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 24

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Feb 2020
After · 9 Mar 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 · 31Every 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 Cuba ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Colón fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 February 2020 and 2 March 2020: 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 1,331 hectares (13.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Colón (1,306 ha, 2.1 %); Los Arabos (32 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.3 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cuba (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: 105

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 105.

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 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.