How long did the Florida fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 January 2017 and 3 February 2017: 14 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 81,000 hectares (810.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 9 municipalities: Florida (39,636 ha, 65 %); Tomé (12,643 ha, 25 %); Concepción (9,548 ha, 44 %); Quillón (5,589 ha, 14 %); Yumbel (4,480 ha, 6.2 %); Penco (4,468 ha, 41 %); Coelemu (3,188 ha, 9.3 %); Hualqui (1,111 ha, 2.0 %); Ránquil (508 ha, 2.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Very high.

Where does this data come from?

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

CL · Chile · 2017-01-21 → 2017-02-03

Florida fire, January 2017 Florida, Tomé, Concepción

Out · last detection 3 Feb 2017, 06:22 UTC

The fire started on 21 January 2017 in Florida, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 81,000 hectares from heat detections, spread across 9 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Región del Bío-Bío since 2016 (of 74 with a page). Number 2 in Chile in 2017, of 56.

Burnt area: 81,000ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 14days; 21 Jan 2017 – 3 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit: 9; communes
Started on: 21 Jan; 2017
Heat detections: 5,222; in a single hotspot: 392 MW
Danger at start: 26; High · FWI index
Energy released: 119.2GW; sum of detected power

Play back 3 Feb 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Jan3 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

2122232425262728293031123

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

The weather it burned in

39°high

63km/h · peak gust

13%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 4 Feb.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 829 ha in 2016.

829 ha Quillón fire, March 2016 1,074 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Florida where it started

39,636 ha reached on 21 Jan

65 %
Tomé

12,643 ha reached on 20 Jan

25 %
Concepción

9,548 ha reached on 25 Jan

44 %
Quillón

5,589 ha reached on 25 Jan

14 %
Yumbel

4,480 ha reached on 25 Jan

6.2 %
Penco

4,468 ha reached on 21 Jan

41 %
Coelemu

3,188 ha reached on 26 Jan

9.3 %
Hualqui

1,111 ha reached on 22 Jan

2.0 %
Ránquil

508 ha reached on 26 Jan

2.0 %

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	27.3 °C	23 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
15 Jan	29.0 °C	24 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
16 Jan	27.8 °C	26 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
17 Jan	27.7 °C	21 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
18 Jan	31.0 °C	18 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
19 Jan	31.0 °C	26 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
20 Jan	33.3 °C	17 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
21 Jan	32.9 °C	13 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
22 Jan	31.3 °C	15 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
23 Jan	28.6 °C	28 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
24 Jan	28.7 °C	35 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
25 Jan	34.3 °C	18 %	63 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
26 Jan	39.2 °C	13 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
27 Jan	31.7 °C	35 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
28 Jan	31.6 °C	31 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
29 Jan	27.8 °C	24 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
30 Jan	25.7 °C	36 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
31 Jan	27.7 °C	16 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
1 Feb	27.5 °C	24 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
2 Feb	22.0 °C	40 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
3 Feb	19.9 °C	54 %	35 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 18
4 Feb after	21.8 °C	39 %	38 km/h	1.4 mm	Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 14 Jan 2017

After · 10 Feb 2017

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 · 5,222Every 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 Chile ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Florida fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 January 2017 and 3 February 2017: 14 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 81,000 hectares (810.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 9 municipalities: Florida (39,636 ha, 65 %); Tomé (12,643 ha, 25 %); Concepción (9,548 ha, 44 %); Quillón (5,589 ha, 14 %); Yumbel (4,480 ha, 6.2 %); Penco (4,468 ha, 41 %); Coelemu (3,188 ha, 9.3 %); Hualqui (1,111 ha, 2.0 %); Ránquil (508 ha, 2.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Chile (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: 130 (CONAF) · 132

CONAF · Corporación Nacional Forestal ↗
SENAPRED ↗

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 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 130 (CONAF) · 132.

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 (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