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BO · Bolivia · –

Exaltación fire, 8 August 2024 Exaltación

Out · last detection 16 Aug 2024, 17:28 UTC

The fire started on 8 August 2024 in Exaltación, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,080 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 832th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 859 with a page). Number 285 in Bolivia in 2024, of 295.

Burnt area
3,080ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
8 Aug 2024 – 16 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
8 Aug
2024
Heat detections
85
in a single hotspot: 275 MW
Danger at start
16
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
323MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Aug16 Aug
16 Aug 2024

How it evolved, day by day

12 Aug 2024 · 83 MW · 4 13 Aug 2024 · 213 MW · 39 14 Aug 2024 · 277 MW · 22 15 Aug 2024 · 1,033 MW · 19 16 Aug 2024 · 9 MW · 1
12 Aug 13 Aug 14 Aug 15 Aug 16 Aug

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
41km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

41% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 425 ha in 2016, 64 ha in 2020, 1,036 ha in 2022, 142 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,269 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.9% of the area of London (31 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Exaltación 8,012 inhabitants where it started
    3,092 ha reached on 12 Aug
    0.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area0.15 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.15 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
8 Aug 33.9 °C 52 % 32 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 16
9 Aug 25.2 °C 70 % 41 km/h 8.2 mm Very low 1
10 Aug 24.0 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
11 Aug 29.8 °C 35 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
12 Aug 31.2 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
13 Aug 31.2 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Aug 34.0 °C 28 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
15 Aug 37.0 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
16 Aug 37.6 °C 31 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Aug after 37.5 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.3 mm High 27
18 Aug after 37.8 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
19 Aug after 37.1 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 Aug after 37.8 °C 35 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 Aug after 36.2 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Aug after 36.9 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Aug after 37.0 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Aug after 33.7 °C 50 % 40 km/h 0.7 mm High 25
25 Aug after 24.5 °C 40 % 50 km/h 0.6 mm High 26
26 Aug after 25.6 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 28

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 16.5, a minimum humidity of 52% and rain the day before. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 22.

FWI at the start 16.5
Minimum humidity 52 %
Days without rain 0
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Exaltación fire, October 2020
6,512 ha 19 days FWI 14.5 Min. humidity 49 % 91 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.4 mm on 20 Oct.

What happened to them

9 days
median duration
4,646 ha
median area
5 %
went past 10,000 ha
5.4 mm
rain at the end (median; 19 of 22 had it)

It stayed below its twins: 3,080 ha against a median of 4,646 ha. It lasted 9 days, against 9 days.

In 3 of 22, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.4 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
41km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 16 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 19 of 22, with a median of 5.4 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Aug 2024
After · 23 Aug 2024

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 · Copernicus

On 16 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 84 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 76: 5.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak84 µg/m³
Days over the guideline10 days
PM10120 µg/m³
Optical depth1.96
8 Aug11 Aug14 Aug17 Aug
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 85Every 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 Bolivia

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Exaltación fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 8 August 2024 to 16 August 2024 (9 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 August 2024 to 16 August 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,080 hectares (30.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Exaltación (3,092 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bolivia (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 22. Their median duration was 9 days and their median area 4,646 ha; 5 % went past 10,000 ha. In 3 of 22, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.4 mm.

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: 119 · 110 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 10 August 2024 → 8 August 2024.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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 119 · 110.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 10 August 2024 to 16 August 2024. 85 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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 ADM3 (Public Domain). 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.