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Concepcion fire, 15 August 2021 Concepcion

Out · last detection 24 Aug 2021, 04:56 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2021 in Concepcion, Paraguay, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,766 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 149th largest in Concepción since 2016 (of 195 with a page). Number 199 in Paraguay in 2021, of 251.

Burnt area
1,766ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
15 Aug 2021 – 24 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
15 Aug
2021
Heat detections
82
in a single hotspot: 172 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Aug 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug24 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

15171819202224

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
67km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 25 Aug.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Concepcion where it started
    1,769 ha reached on 15 Aug
    0.2 %

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)
15 Aug 28.7 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
16 Aug 34.7 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Aug 36.9 °C 23 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Aug 38.5 °C 17 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
19 Aug 37.9 °C 17 % 67 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
20 Aug 37.6 °C 18 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
21 Aug 35.7 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Aug 37.2 °C 20 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
23 Aug 37.2 °C 27 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
24 Aug 36.6 °C 24 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
25 Aug after 27.2 °C 55 % 45 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Aug 2021
After · 31 Aug 2021

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 · 82Every 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 Paraguay ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Concepcion fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 August 2021 and 24 August 2021: 10 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 1,766 hectares (17.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Concepcion (1,769 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Paraguay (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: 132 · 911

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 132 · 911.

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 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). 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.