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Copo fire, 11 September 2016 Copo

Out · last detection 12 Sept 2016, 17:05 UTC

The fire started on 11 September 2016 in Copo, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,764 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 29th largest in Santiago del Estero since 2016 (of 320 with a page). Number 58 in Argentina in 2016, of 255.

Burnt area
3,764ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
11 Sept 2016 – 12 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
11 Sept
2016
Heat detections
121
in a single hotspot: 327 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Sept12 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1112

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
59km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Copo where it started
    3,785 ha reached on 11 Sept
    0.3 %

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)
11 Sept 36.2 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
12 Sept 38.0 °C 24 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Sept after 27.8 °C 18 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Sept after 26.9 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
15 Sept after 28.1 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Sept after 31.0 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Sept after 36.0 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Sept after 31.9 °C 24 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Sept after 25.2 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
20 Sept after 27.8 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Sept after 30.7 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Sept after 35.8 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Sept 2016
After · 19 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 · 121Every 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 Argentina ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Copo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 September 2016 and 12 September 2016: 2 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 3,764 hectares (37.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Copo (3,785 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Argentina (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: 911 · 100

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 911 · 100.

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 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.