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Concepcion fire, 23 August 2016 Concepcion, San Carlos

Out · last detection 26 Aug 2016, 17:25 UTC

The fire started on 23 August 2016 in Concepcion, Paraguay, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,503 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 81th largest in Concepción since 2016 (of 195 with a page). Number 34 in Paraguay in 2016, of 124.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.0 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
2,503ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
23 Aug 2016 – 26 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
23 Aug
2016
Heat detections
84
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
10
Low · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Aug26 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

23242526

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
52km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 14.5 mm on 28 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
    2,457 ha reached on 23 Aug
    0.3 %
  2. San Carlos
    51 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)
23 Aug 24.1 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
24 Aug 28.6 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
25 Aug 33.8 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
26 Aug 35.5 °C 27 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
27 Aug after 35.0 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
28 Aug after 30.0 °C 49 % 55 km/h 14.5 mm Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Aug 2016
After · 2 Sept 2016

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 · 84Every 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 23 August 2016 and 26 August 2016: 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 2,503 hectares (25.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Concepcion (2,457 ha, 0.3 %); San Carlos (51 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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.