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Formosa fire, February 2019 Formosa, Pilcomayo

Out · last detection 9 Feb 2019, 17:04 UTC

The fire started on 6 February 2019 in Formosa, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,746 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 119th largest in Formosa since 2016 (of 620 with a page). Number 39 in Argentina in 2019, of 158.

Burnt area
3,746ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
6 Feb 2019 – 9 Feb 2019
Municipalities hit
2
departments
Started on
6 Feb
2019
Heat detections
99
in a single hotspot: 45 MW
Danger at start
12
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Feb 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Feb9 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

6789

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
38km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.7 mm on 10 Feb.

This area had burned before

26% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 483 ha in 2016, 483 ha in 2017, 1 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Formosa where it started
    3,602 ha reached on 6 Feb
    0.6 %
  2. Pilcomayo
    148 ha reached on 8 Feb
    0.0 %

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)
6 Feb 33.6 °C 40 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
7 Feb 36.1 °C 31 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
8 Feb 38.6 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
9 Feb 38.8 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
10 Feb after 31.3 °C 63 % 31 km/h 9.7 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Jan 2019
After · 16 Feb 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 · 99Every 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 Argentina ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Formosa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 February 2019 and 9 February 2019: 4 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 3,746 hectares (37.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Formosa (3,602 ha, 0.6 %); Pilcomayo (148 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Argentina (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: 911 · 100

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 911 · 100.

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 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.