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Concepción fire, 28 August 2019 Concepción, San Ignacio

Out · last detection 4 Oct 2019, 05:32 UTC

The fire started on 28 August 2019 in Concepción, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 38 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 61,441 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 27th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 834 with a page). Number 14 in Bolivia in 2019, of 219.

Burnt area
61,441ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
38days
28 Aug 2019 – 4 Oct 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
28 Aug
2019
Heat detections
4,146
in a single hotspot: 288 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Energy released
40.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 Oct 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Aug4 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2829301234567891011121314151617181920212223242527282930234

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
68km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 12 Oct.

This area had burned before

15% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 578 ha in 2016, 4,876 ha in 2017, 4,355 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,935 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Concepción 93,392 inhabitants where it started
    59,160 ha
    2.0 %
  2. San Ignacio 56,702 inhabitants
    2,706 ha
    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)
22 Aug 33.0 °C 35 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
23 Aug 31.2 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
24 Aug 33.5 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Aug 32.5 °C 42 % 37 km/h 2.6 mm Moderate 12
26 Aug 30.4 °C 52 % 39 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 11
27 Aug 29.4 °C 59 % 31 km/h 5.4 mm Very low 4
28 Aug 32.2 °C 38 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
29 Aug 32.2 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm High 23
30 Aug 33.3 °C 38 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
31 Aug 32.4 °C 43 % 40 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 20
1 Sept 27.8 °C 43 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
2 Sept 32.3 °C 40 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
3 Sept 32.5 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
4 Sept 33.1 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
5 Sept 33.0 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Sept 35.6 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Sept 35.8 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Sept 35.7 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Sept 35.2 °C 25 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Sept 34.5 °C 32 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Sept 33.1 °C 45 % 42 km/h 0.5 mm High 30
12 Sept 28.8 °C 42 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Sept 30.8 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Sept 36.3 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Sept 36.1 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Sept 36.8 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Sept 35.4 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 39
18 Sept 35.6 °C 34 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Sept 34.2 °C 44 % 63 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 41
20 Sept 36.3 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
21 Sept 33.1 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 40
22 Sept 34.2 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Sept 35.8 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Sept 36.4 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Sept 32.8 °C 36 % 37 km/h 4.1 mm Moderate 12
26 Sept 33.0 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Sept 33.1 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Sept 32.7 °C 41 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm High 31
29 Sept 33.7 °C 45 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
30 Sept 31.4 °C 54 % 45 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 19
1 Oct 30.6 °C 57 % 68 km/h 12.7 mm Low 6
2 Oct 29.5 °C 64 % 52 km/h 3.2 mm Very low 4
3 Oct 31.5 °C 52 % 36 km/h 6.0 mm Very low 2
4 Oct 30.5 °C 56 % 38 km/h 5.1 mm Very low 2
5 Oct after 28.1 °C 71 % 34 km/h 10.3 mm Very low 0
6 Oct after 22.7 °C 67 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
7 Oct after 28.9 °C 51 % 31 km/h 1.4 mm Very low 3
8 Oct after 30.8 °C 51 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
9 Oct after 31.3 °C 45 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm Low 9
10 Oct after 32.6 °C 42 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
11 Oct after 30.0 °C 59 % 47 km/h 9.8 mm Very low 1
12 Oct after 32.7 °C 45 % 47 km/h 1.0 mm Very low 5

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Aug 2019
After · 11 Oct 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 · 4,146Every 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 Bolivia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Concepción fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 August 2019 and 4 October 2019: 38 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 61,441 hectares (614.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Concepción (59,160 ha, 2.0 %); San Ignacio (2,706 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 68 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bolivia (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: 119 · 110

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 119 · 110.

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 ADM3 (Public Domain). 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.