How long did the Escuintla fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 January 2018 and 20 January 2018: 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 1,866 hectares (18.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Escuintla (1,548 ha, 2.8 %); San Vicente Pacaya (328 ha, 2.2 %); Palín (1 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, class High.

Where does this data come from?

From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guatemala (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

GT · Guatemala · 2018-01-14 → 2018-01-20

Escuintla fire, January 2018 Escuintla, San Vicente Pacaya, Palín

Out · last detection 21 Jan 2018, 18:57 UTC

The fire started on 14 January 2018 in Escuintla, Guatemala, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,866 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Escuintla since 2016 (of 17 with a page). The largest in Guatemala in 2018, of 4.

The power measured by the satellite is low (16.3 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: 1,866ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 7days; 14 Jan 2018 – 20 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit: 3; municipalities
Started on: 14 Jan; 2018
Heat detections: 57; in a single hotspot: 16 MW
Danger at start: 28; High · FWI index
Energy released: 240MW; sum of detected power

Play back 21 Jan 2018

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jan20 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

14151618192021

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

The weather it burned in

35°high

55km/h · peak gust

28%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,330 ha in 2016.

1,330 ha Escuintla fire, February 2016 2,322 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Escuintla 16,187 inhabitants where it started

1,548 ha reached on 14 Jan

2.8 %
San Vicente Pacaya

328 ha reached on 14 Jan

2.2 %
Palín 62,127 inhabitants

1 ha

0.0 %

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)
14 Jan	32.4 °C	28 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
15 Jan	31.9 °C	29 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
16 Jan	31.5 °C	36 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
17 Jan	32.7 °C	32 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
18 Jan	32.2 °C	33 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
19 Jan	33.0 °C	34 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
20 Jan	32.7 °C	40 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
21 Jan after	32.7 °C	48 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
22 Jan after	32.5 °C	49 %	32 km/h	0.5 mm	Moderate 20
23 Jan after	33.2 °C	39 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
24 Jan after	34.9 °C	35 %	37 km/h	2.9 mm	Low 10
25 Jan after	33.6 °C	36 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
26 Jan after	33.4 °C	37 %	37 km/h	0.1 mm	High 21
27 Jan after	32.9 °C	42 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
28 Jan after	33.5 °C	37 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
29 Jan after	33.7 °C	39 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 21
30 Jan after	33.8 °C	34 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
31 Jan after	34.0 °C	39 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
1 Feb after	33.2 °C	40 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
2 Feb after	34.2 °C	34 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
3 Feb after	33.1 °C	39 %	37 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 18
4 Feb after	31.9 °C	43 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
5 Feb after	32.8 °C	37 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 7 Jan 2018

After · 27 Jan 2018

Before After

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 · 57Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Guatemala ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Escuintla fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 January 2018 and 20 January 2018: 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 1,866 hectares (18.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Escuintla (1,548 ha, 2.8 %); San Vicente Pacaya (328 ha, 2.2 %); Palín (1 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, class High.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guatemala (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: 122 · 123 · 1566

CONRED ↗
INAB · Instituto Nacional de Bosques ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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 122 · 123 · 1566.

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.

Where it burned