Concepcion fire, 6 September 2024 Concepcion, San Carlos
The fire started on 6 September 2024 in Concepcion, Paraguay, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 18,830 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 5th largest in Concepción since 2016 (of 195 with a page). Number 4 in Paraguay in 2024, of 190.
- Burnt area
- 18,830ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 6 Sept 2024 – 12 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 6 Sept
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 1,109
- in a single hotspot: 313 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 16.8GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.5 mm on 13 Sept.
This area had burned before
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,931 ha in 2016, 3,275 ha in 2017, 3,749 ha in 2018, 4,210 ha in 2019, 1,330 ha in 2020, 15,415 ha in 2021, 6,006 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 17,009 ha that had burned before.
- 7,535 ha San Carlos fire, August 2021 26,879 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,277 ha Concepcion fire, August 2016 2,503 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,192 ha Concepcion fire, July 2021 3,948 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,965 ha Concepcion fire, July 2021 2,539 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,840 ha Concepcion fire, September 2019 5,387 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,465 ha Concepcion fire, September 2023 1,709 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,361 ha Concepcion fire, October 2023 4,842 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,354 ha Concepcion fire, September 2018 1,787 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Concepcion where it started13,405 ha reached on 3 Sept1.9 %
-
5,476 ha reached on 6 Sept2.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Sept | 38.1 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 4 Sept | 33.1 °C | 31 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 Sept | 24.1 °C | 35 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Sept | 30.6 °C | 33 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 7 Sept | 38.4 °C | 15 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 8 Sept | 39.7 °C | 12 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 9 Sept | 39.3 °C | 12 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 10 Sept | 38.2 °C | 10 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 11 Sept | 39.3 °C | 12 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 12 Sept | 30.5 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 13 Sept after | 34.5 °C | 39 % | 47 km/h | 7.5 mm | Low 9 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 12 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 216 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 100: 6.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 1,109Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Concepcion fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 September 2024 and 12 September 2024: 7 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 18,830 hectares (188.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Concepcion (13,405 ha, 1.9 %); San Carlos (5,476 ha, 2.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.7 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 62 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
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.