Florida fire, March 2023 Florida, Esmeralda
The fire started on 5 March 2023 in Florida, Cuba, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,256 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 37th largest in Camagüey since 2016 (of 63 with a page). Number 26 in Cuba in 2023, of 46.
- Burnt area
- 1,256ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 1day
- 5 Mar 2023 – 5 Mar 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 5 Mar
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 44
- in a single hotspot: 172 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.2GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 14 Mar.
This area had burned before
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 13 ha in 2017, 1,069 ha in 2020.
- 1,060 ha Florida fire, February 2020 2,945 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 13 ha Florida fire, March 2017 1,211 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9 ha Camagüey fire, February 2020 2,602 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Florida where it started1,205 ha reached on 5 Mar0.7 %
-
57 ha reached on 5 Mar0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Mar | 31.3 °C | 41 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Mar after | 29.6 °C | 54 % | 37 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 7 Mar after | 30.8 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 8 Mar after | 30.7 °C | 39 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 9 Mar after | 28.2 °C | 54 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 10 Mar after | 29.0 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 11 Mar after | 30.2 °C | 45 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 12 Mar after | 30.8 °C | 44 % | 27 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 22 |
| 13 Mar after | 32.1 °C | 39 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 14 Mar after | 32.4 °C | 37 % | 30 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 18 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 7 March 2023 the air beside the fire reached 37 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 44Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 2,945 haFlorida9 February 2020 · 3 days · 1 km away
- 2,602 haCamagüeyFebruary 2020 · 4 days · 5 km away
- 4,070 haCamagüey20 March 2020 · 3 days · 6 km away
- 4,592 haEsmeraldaApril 2021 · 2 days · 10 km away
- 2,155 haEsmeralda20 February 2019 · 6 days · 10 km away
- 2,748 haEsmeraldaMarch 2022 · 5 days · 11 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Florida fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 March 2023 and 5 March 2023: 1 day 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 1,256 hectares (12.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Florida (1,205 ha, 0.7 %); Esmeralda (57 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.3 °C, humidity dropped to 41 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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
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.