Fonseca fire, March 2019 Fonseca, San Juan Del Cesar
The fire started on 14 March 2019 in Fonseca, Colombia, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,660 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 3th largest in La Guajira since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 47 in Colombia in 2019, of 131.
The power measured by the satellite is low (20.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 2,660ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 14 Mar 2019 – 28 Mar 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 14 Mar
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 110
- in a single hotspot: 21 MW
- Danger at start
- 8
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 503MW
- 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 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 19.5 mm on 29 Mar.
This area had burned before
38% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,015 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
Fonseca where it started2,569 ha reached on 14 Mar5.4 %
-
107 ha reached on 26 Mar0.1 %
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.
Official record
According to UNGRD, a fire of 2,500 ha was recorded in Fonseca on 18 March 2019 (the satellite measured 2,660 ha). The record has no coordinates, so it was matched by municipality and date.
- Fonseca 18 March 2019 2,500 ha
UNGRD (Unidad Nacional para la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres), emergencias 2019-2022 en datos.gov.co (CC BY-SA 4.0). This is the agency’s operational record: its figures may be revised when the year’s statistics are closed.
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 Mar | 30.8 °C | 55 % | 27 km/h | 1.5 mm | Low 8 |
| 15 Mar | 30.1 °C | 59 % | 35 km/h | 0.9 mm | Low 9 |
| 16 Mar | 32.2 °C | 46 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 17 Mar | 30.8 °C | 55 % | 35 km/h | 1.6 mm | Low 8 |
| 18 Mar | 32.0 °C | 51 % | 30 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 19 Mar | 32.1 °C | 48 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 20 Mar | 30.7 °C | 55 % | 35 km/h | 1.1 mm | Low 10 |
| 21 Mar | 30.2 °C | 58 % | 40 km/h | 11.6 mm | Very low 2 |
| 22 Mar | 29.2 °C | 62 % | 30 km/h | 4.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 23 Mar | 30.0 °C | 52 % | 35 km/h | 1.4 mm | Very low 4 |
| 24 Mar | 32.3 °C | 47 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 10 |
| 25 Mar | 31.1 °C | 47 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 26 Mar | 32.0 °C | 38 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 27 Mar | 31.9 °C | 42 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 28 Mar | 30.5 °C | 51 % | 27 km/h | 1.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 29 Mar after | 31.1 °C | 55 % | 31 km/h | 19.5 mm | Very low 1 |
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.
Detections table · 110Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Fonseca fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 March 2019 and 28 March 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 2,660 hectares (26.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Fonseca (2,569 ha, 5.4 %); San Juan Del Cesar (107 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 17, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Colombia (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: 123 · 119
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 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (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.