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Florida fire, 9 February 2020 Florida, Esmeralda

Out · last detection 11 Feb 2020, 19:17 UTC

The fire started on 9 February 2020 in Florida, Cuba, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,945 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Camagüey since 2016 (of 63 with a page). Number 2 in Cuba in 2020, of 53.

Burnt area
2,945ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
9 Feb 2020 – 11 Feb 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
9 Feb
2020
Heat detections
123
in a single hotspot: 131 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Feb 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Feb11 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

91011

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
48km/h · peak gust
45%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 55 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Florida where it started
    2,168 ha reached on 8 Feb
    1.3 %
  2. Esmeralda
    790 ha reached on 9 Feb
    0.4 %

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)
7 Feb 30.5 °C 52 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
8 Feb 31.2 °C 46 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
9 Feb 29.1 °C 54 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
10 Feb 28.2 °C 59 % 46 km/h 0.2 mm High 22
11 Feb 30.1 °C 51 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
12 Feb after 30.3 °C 47 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
13 Feb after 30.6 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
14 Feb after 30.6 °C 48 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
15 Feb after 29.6 °C 45 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
16 Feb after 29.1 °C 49 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
17 Feb after 29.7 °C 46 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
18 Feb after 30.5 °C 48 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
19 Feb after 30.5 °C 49 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
20 Feb after 30.6 °C 48 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
21 Feb after 31.6 °C 47 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
22 Feb after 27.7 °C 61 % 42 km/h 0.5 mm High 22
23 Feb after 26.0 °C 51 % 50 km/h 0.3 mm High 24

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Feb 2020
After · 18 Feb 2020

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 · 123Every 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 Cuba ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Florida fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 February 2020 and 11 February 2020: 3 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 2,945 hectares (29.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Florida (2,168 ha, 1.3 %); Esmeralda (790 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.2 °C, humidity dropped to 45 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cuba (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: 105

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 105.

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 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.