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Formosa fire, 24 September 2020 Formosa, Laishi

Out · last detection 2 Oct 2020, 17:36 UTC

The fire started on 24 September 2020 in Formosa, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,101 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 68th largest in Formosa since 2016 (of 620 with a page). Number 96 in Argentina in 2020, of 671.

Burnt area
5,101ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
24 Sept 2020 – 2 Oct 2020
Municipalities hit
2
departments
Started on
24 Sept
2020
Heat detections
247
in a single hotspot: 126 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Oct 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Sept2 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2425262728293012

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

The weather it burned in

43°high
69km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.5 mm on 8 Oct.

This area had burned before

32% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,647 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Formosa where it started
    3,843 ha reached on 24 Sept
    0.6 %
  2. Laishi
    1,280 ha reached on 30 Sept
    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)
24 Sept 35.1 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
25 Sept 39.1 °C 26 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Sept 41.2 °C 22 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Sept 32.4 °C 41 % 52 km/h 0.9 mm High 27
28 Sept 27.0 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
29 Sept 35.8 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
30 Sept 42.4 °C 18 % 69 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
1 Oct 43.2 °C 15 % 67 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
2 Oct 32.8 °C 37 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Oct after 22.0 °C 54 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
4 Oct after 24.7 °C 50 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
5 Oct after 22.6 °C 47 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
6 Oct after 27.8 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
7 Oct after 32.4 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
8 Oct after 31.8 °C 46 % 35 km/h 4.5 mm Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Sept 2020
After · 9 Oct 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 · 247Every 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 24 September 2020 and 2 October 2020: 9 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 5,101 hectares (51.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Formosa (3,843 ha, 0.6 %); Laishi (1,280 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 43.2 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 69 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 72, class Very extreme.
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.