Skip to content
worldfires
PY · Paraguay · →

Concepcion fire, 16 September 2023 Concepcion

Out · last detection 21 Sept 2023, 17:12 UTC

The fire started on 16 September 2023 in Concepcion, Paraguay, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,709 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 162th largest in Concepción since 2016 (of 195 with a page). Number 165 in Paraguay in 2023, of 209.

The power measured by the satellite is low (21.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,709ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
16 Sept 2023 – 21 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
16 Sept
2023
Heat detections
73
in a single hotspot: 22 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
319MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Sept 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Sept21 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
66km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,398 ha in 2016, 1,188 ha in 2017, 1,142 ha in 2018, 883 ha in 2020, 1,107 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,707 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Concepcion where it started
    1,713 ha reached on 16 Sept
    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)
16 Sept 35.9 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Sept 38.7 °C 24 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Sept 36.7 °C 30 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Sept 34.0 °C 40 % 39 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 18
20 Sept 34.7 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 18
21 Sept 38.0 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Sept after 39.5 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Sept after 39.5 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Sept after 39.5 °C 28 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Sept after 39.8 °C 24 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Sept after 40.4 °C 25 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Sept after 24.2 °C 69 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
28 Sept after 27.9 °C 42 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
29 Sept after 31.2 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 21
30 Sept after 27.0 °C 43 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
1 Oct after 31.2 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 23

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Sept 2023
After · 28 Sept 2023

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 19 September 2023 the air beside the fire reached 22 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak22 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1032 µg/m³
Optical depth0.70
1415161718192021222324
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 73Every 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 16 September 2023 and 21 September 2023: 6 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 1,709 hectares (17.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Concepcion (1,713 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 66 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class High.
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.