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Copo fire, 19 September 2019 Copo

Out · last detection 30 Sept 2019, 05:10 UTC

The fire started on 19 September 2019 in Copo, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,212 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 108th largest in Santiago del Estero since 2016 (of 320 with a page). Number 85 in Argentina in 2019, of 158.

Burnt area
2,212ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
19 Sept 2019 – 30 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
19 Sept
2019
Heat detections
174
in a single hotspot: 125 MW
Danger at start
62
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
3.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Sept30 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1920212223242526272830

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
61km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 12.2 mm on 1 Oct.

This area had burned before

22% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 477 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Copo where it started
    2,217 ha reached on 19 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)
19 Sept 33.4 °C 15 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
20 Sept 23.5 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Sept 28.2 °C 14 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Sept 31.3 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Sept 32.7 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Sept 33.8 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 Sept 32.8 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.3 mm Extreme 50
26 Sept 35.2 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Sept 35.5 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
28 Sept 38.9 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
29 Sept 40.1 °C 18 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
30 Sept 42.4 °C 19 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
1 Oct after 34.5 °C 30 % 66 km/h 12.2 mm High 26

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Sept 2019
After · 7 Oct 2019

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 · 174Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Copo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 September 2019 and 30 September 2019: 12 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 2,212 hectares (22.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Copo (2,217 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 42.4 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 76, class Very extreme.
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.