Formosa fire, 16 January 2022 Formosa, Laishi
The fire started on 16 January 2022 in Formosa, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,848 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 108th largest in Formosa since 2016 (of 620 with a page). Number 113 in Argentina in 2022, of 442.
- Burnt area
- 3,848ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 16 Jan 2022 – 23 Jan 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- departments
- Started on
- 16 Jan
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 151
- in a single hotspot: 37 MW
- Danger at start
- 54
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 171MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.8 mm on 27 Jan.
This area had burned before
80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,169 ha in 2018, 6,354 ha in 2020, 362 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,090 ha that had burned before.
- 2,597 ha Formosa fire, April 2020 13,113 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,118 ha Formosa fire, September 2020 5,101 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,169 ha Formosa fire, August 2018 1,848 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Formosa where it started3,629 ha reached on 14 Jan0.6 %
-
239 ha reached on 17 Jan0.1 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Jan | 41.1 °C | 24 % | 66 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 17 Jan | 41.3 °C | 24 % | 67 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 18 Jan | 40.1 °C | 28 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 19 Jan | 39.3 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 20 Jan | 38.8 °C | 36 % | 34 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 28 |
| 21 Jan | 40.4 °C | 28 % | 45 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 39 |
| 22 Jan | 40.2 °C | 28 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 23 Jan | 40.6 °C | 30 % | 44 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Jan after | 40.5 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 25 Jan after | 39.7 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 26 Jan after | 38.3 °C | 37 % | 45 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 35 |
| 27 Jan after | 29.0 °C | 65 % | 46 km/h | 6.8 mm | Low 6 |
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 · 151Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 13,113 haFormosa10 April 2020 · 22 days · 1 km away
- 5,101 haFormosa24 September 2020 · 9 days · 2 km away
- 5,160 haFormosa13 January 2022 · 8 days · 8 km away
- 9,148 haFormosa9 January 2022 · 15 days · 14 km away
- 5,220 haFormosa6 March 2020 · 9 days · 20 km away
- 23,896 haLaishi11 January 2022 · 14 days · 22 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Formosa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 January 2022 and 23 January 2022: 8 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 3,848 hectares (38.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Formosa (3,629 ha, 0.6 %); Laishi (239 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.3 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class 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
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.