Copo fire, August 2025 Copo, Almirante Brown
The fire started on 1 August 2025 in Copo, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,577 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 279th largest in Santiago del Estero since 2016 (of 320 with a page). Number 189 in Argentina in 2025, of 206.
- Burnt area
- 1,577ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 1 Aug 2025 – 2 Aug 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- departments
- Started on
- 1 Aug
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 42
- in a single hotspot: 184 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
5% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 49 ha in 2020, 73 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 73 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Copo where it started1,499 ha reached on 1 Aug0.1 %
-
87 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Aug | 33.7 °C | 34 % | 66 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 2 Aug | 28.1 °C | 49 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 3 Aug after | 24.8 °C | 47 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 4 Aug after | 20.7 °C | 56 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 5 Aug after | 21.5 °C | 48 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 6 Aug after | 23.3 °C | 49 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 7 Aug after | 23.6 °C | 41 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 8 Aug after | 18.3 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 9 Aug after | 20.6 °C | 20 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 10 Aug after | 21.9 °C | 21 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 11 Aug after | 24.1 °C | 21 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 12 Aug after | 26.8 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
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 3 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 34 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 23: 1.5 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 · 42Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,159 haCopo21 September 2020 · 11 days · 9 km away
- 2,527 haAlberdi2 August 2020 · 4 days · 30 km away
- 3,968 haAlmirante Brown11 October 2019 · 3 days · 31 km away
- 4,870 haAlmirante Brown10 September 2018 · 2 days · 34 km away
- 3,099 haAlmirante Brown28 August 2018 · 3 days · 34 km away
- 4,118 haAlmirante Brown12 September 2016 · 13 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Copo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 August 2025 and 2 August 2025: 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 1,577 hectares (15.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Copo (1,499 ha, 0.1 %); Almirante Brown (87 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 66 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class 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
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.