Formosa fire, January 2020 Formosa
The fire started on 18 January 2020 in Formosa, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,061 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 354th largest in Formosa since 2016 (of 620 with a page). Number 394 in Argentina in 2020, of 671.
The power measured by the satellite is low (22.5 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
- 2,061ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 18 Jan 2020 – 19 Jan 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- departments
- Started on
- 18 Jan
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 72
- in a single hotspot: 22 MW
- Danger at start
- 5
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 438MW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 20 Jan.
This area had burned before
49% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 277 ha in 2016, 642 ha in 2017, 748 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,010 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Formosa where it started2,066 ha reached on 15 Jan0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Jan | 35.5 °C | 53 % | 25 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very low 5 |
| 19 Jan | 36.7 °C | 48 % | 28 km/h | 0.5 mm | Low 7 |
| 20 Jan after | 38.4 °C | 42 % | 34 km/h | 1.3 mm | Low 9 |
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 · 72Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 12,890 haFormosa16 February 2026 · 7 days · 4 km away
- 13,234 haPirané25 September 2020 · 8 days · 24 km away
- 81,287 haPilcomayo11 January 2022 · 16 days · 26 km away
- 9,799 haPilcomayo17 January 2022 · 10 days · 27 km away
- 14,338 haFormosa11 January 2022 · 14 days · 33 km away
- 9,148 haFormosa9 January 2022 · 15 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Formosa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 January 2020 and 19 January 2020: 2 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 2,061 hectares (20.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Formosa (2,066 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 48 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 7, class Low.
- 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
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.