Colón fire, March 2020 Calimete, Colón
The fire started on 17 March 2020 in Colón, Cuba, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,312 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 19th largest in Matanzas since 2016 (of 34 with a page). Number 22 in Cuba in 2020, of 53.
- Burnt area
- 1,312ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 17 Mar 2020 – 20 Mar 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 17 Mar
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 34
- in a single hotspot: 103 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 718MW
- 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 19 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
-
1,013 ha reached on 17 Mar1.1 %
-
Colón where it started307 ha reached on 17 Mar0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Mar | 30.9 °C | 41 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 18 Mar | 31.6 °C | 38 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 19 Mar | 31.2 °C | 38 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 20 Mar | 32.1 °C | 40 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 21 Mar after | 32.0 °C | 37 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 22 Mar after | 30.2 °C | 46 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 23 Mar after | 31.1 °C | 37 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 24 Mar after | 31.8 °C | 39 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 25 Mar after | 31.5 °C | 39 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 26 Mar after | 32.0 °C | 37 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 27 Mar after | 33.0 °C | 38 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 28 Mar after | 33.2 °C | 31 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 29 Mar after | 33.0 °C | 37 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 30 Mar after | 33.2 °C | 41 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
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.
Detections table · 34Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Colón fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 March 2020 and 20 March 2020: 4 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 1,312 hectares (13.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Calimete (1,013 ha, 1.1 %); Colón (307 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.1 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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
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.