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Filadelfia fire, July 2019 Filadelfia

Out · last detection 8 Aug 2019, 17:31 UTC

The fire started on 26 July 2019 in Filadelfia, Paraguay, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,050 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 142th largest in Boquerón since 2016 (of 291 with a page). Number 140 in Paraguay in 2019, of 231.

Burnt area
2,050ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
26 Jul 2019 – 9 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
26 Jul
2019
Heat detections
120
in a single hotspot: 119 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Aug 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Jul9 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2627282930311345678

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
82km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Filadelfia where it started
    2,047 ha reached on 20 Jul
    0.1 %

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)
20 Jul 33.4 °C 36 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
21 Jul 35.8 °C 32 % 82 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Jul 33.6 °C 44 % 73 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Jul 21.9 °C 52 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
24 Jul 13.9 °C 67 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
25 Jul 9.5 °C 81 % 39 km/h 3.7 mm Very low 0
26 Jul 19.7 °C 50 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
27 Jul 22.5 °C 47 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
28 Jul 26.3 °C 42 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
29 Jul 33.2 °C 33 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Jul 30.9 °C 44 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
31 Jul 35.6 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Aug 36.2 °C 16 % 73 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
2 Aug 23.9 °C 32 % 61 km/h 1.7 mm High 24
3 Aug 22.5 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
4 Aug 23.5 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
5 Aug 26.6 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
6 Aug 32.5 °C 24 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Aug 34.9 °C 24 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Aug 34.8 °C 31 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Aug 25.9 °C 43 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Aug after 19.3 °C 48 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
11 Aug after 34.8 °C 25 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Aug after 35.2 °C 33 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Aug after 25.8 °C 27 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Aug after 22.2 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Aug after 29.9 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Aug after 35.7 °C 23 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Aug after 37.5 °C 23 % 76 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
18 Aug after 32.7 °C 38 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Aug after 24.9 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Jul 2019
After · 16 Aug 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 · 120Every 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 Paraguay ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Filadelfia fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 July 2019 and 9 August 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 2,050 hectares (20.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Filadelfia (2,047 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 82 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Paraguay (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: 132 · 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
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 132 · 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 (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.