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Danlí fire, 16 March 2019 Danlí, Juticalpa

Out · last detection 31 Mar 2019, 18:19 UTC

The fire started on 16 March 2019 in Danlí, Honduras, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,300 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in El Paraíso since 2016 (of 63 with a page). Number 3 in Honduras in 2019, of 93.

The power measured by the satellite is low (18.8 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
6,300ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
16 Mar 2019 – 30 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
16 Mar
2019
Heat detections
256
in a single hotspot: 19 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Mar 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Mar30 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021222324252628293031

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
52km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.5 mm on 2 Apr.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Danlí where it started
    5,849 ha reached on 17 Mar
    2.3 %
  2. Juticalpa
    493 ha reached on 23 Mar
    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)
16 Mar 31.0 °C 41 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 21
17 Mar 31.5 °C 43 % 46 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 20
18 Mar 32.0 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
19 Mar 32.2 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
20 Mar 32.3 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
21 Mar 32.1 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
22 Mar 31.2 °C 39 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Mar 31.9 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
24 Mar 31.6 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
25 Mar 32.7 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 Mar 33.0 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
27 Mar 31.5 °C 36 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Mar 31.2 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Mar 32.6 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
30 Mar 32.9 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
31 Mar after 33.0 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
1 Apr after 33.5 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
2 Apr after 31.2 °C 55 % 42 km/h 2.5 mm Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Mar 2019
After · 6 Apr 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 · 256Every 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 Honduras ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Danlí fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 March 2019 and 30 March 2019: 15 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 6,300 hectares (63.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Danlí (5,849 ha, 2.3 %); Juticalpa (493 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Honduras (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

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
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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.

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 International (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.