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Concepción fire, 22 August 2020 Concepción, San Ignacio

Out · last detection 14 Oct 2020, 17:14 UTC

The fire started on 22 August 2020 in Concepción, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 54 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 48,633 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the 44th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 834 with a page). Number 9 in Bolivia in 2020, of 211.

Burnt area
48,633ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
54days
22 Aug 2020 – 14 Oct 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
22 Aug
2020
Heat detections
2,918
in a single hotspot: 145 MW
Danger at start
7
Low · FWI index
Energy released
14.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Oct 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Aug14 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

22232425262728293031123456789101112131415161718192025262728301234567891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
55km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 38 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.5 mm on 19 Oct.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 527 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Concepción 93,392 inhabitants where it started
    45,637 ha
    1.6 %
  2. San Ignacio 56,702 inhabitants
    3,171 ha
    0.1 %

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)
16 Aug 31.1 °C 54 % 37 km/h 2.9 mm Low 7
17 Aug 34.1 °C 45 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
18 Aug 34.4 °C 33 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Aug 34.3 °C 42 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Aug 23.9 °C 66 % 55 km/h 3.1 mm Low 8
21 Aug 16.7 °C 48 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
22 Aug 20.5 °C 44 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
23 Aug 28.0 °C 42 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
24 Aug 31.7 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
25 Aug 32.9 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
26 Aug 33.9 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
27 Aug 35.1 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Aug 34.9 °C 39 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
29 Aug 35.4 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
30 Aug 30.2 °C 58 % 23 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 12
31 Aug 33.1 °C 46 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
1 Sept 32.2 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
2 Sept 32.5 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Sept 33.4 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Sept 35.4 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
5 Sept 36.0 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Sept 36.0 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Sept 35.2 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Sept 33.9 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Sept 37.2 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Sept 37.1 °C 24 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Sept 37.1 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Sept 35.0 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Sept 35.6 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Sept 34.6 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
15 Sept 33.5 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Sept 35.9 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Sept 34.6 °C 31 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Sept 36.3 °C 26 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Sept 36.0 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
20 Sept 28.0 °C 56 % 45 km/h 8.5 mm Low 6
21 Sept 31.6 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
22 Sept 31.0 °C 37 % 34 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 16
23 Sept 33.8 °C 38 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
24 Sept 36.4 °C 34 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
25 Sept 35.8 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
26 Sept 35.1 °C 39 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Sept 36.0 °C 34 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Sept 33.3 °C 42 % 35 km/h 4.5 mm Low 8
29 Sept 35.6 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
30 Sept 37.1 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Oct 36.3 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
2 Oct 37.6 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Oct 37.1 °C 33 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
4 Oct 37.3 °C 33 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Oct 38.1 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.4 mm High 30
6 Oct 34.2 °C 44 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Oct 37.0 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Oct 38.2 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Oct 37.2 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Oct 37.5 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Oct 36.0 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Oct 32.8 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Oct 37.3 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Oct 36.9 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.4 mm High 37
15 Oct after 34.3 °C 43 % 38 km/h 10.1 mm Low 6
16 Oct after 34.8 °C 39 % 28 km/h 1.8 mm Moderate 12
17 Oct after 35.9 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
18 Oct after 36.5 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.7 mm High 24
19 Oct after 30.3 °C 59 % 45 km/h 5.5 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Aug 2020
After · 21 Oct 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 · 2,918Every 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 22 August 2020 and 14 October 2020: 54 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 48,633 hectares (486.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Concepción (45,637 ha, 1.6 %); San Ignacio (3,171 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.