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AR · Argentina · –

General Paz fire, February 2023 General Paz, Concepción

Out · last detection 21 Feb 2023, 16:46 UTC

The fire started on 5 February 2023 in General Paz, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,507 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 60th largest in Corrientes since 2016 (of 198 with a page). Number 47 in Argentina in 2023, of 179.

Burnt area
3,507ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
5 Feb 2023 – 21 Feb 2023
Municipalities hit
2
departments
Started on
5 Feb
2023
Heat detections
215
in a single hotspot: 203 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Average daily power
222MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Feb21 Feb
21 Feb 2023

How it evolved, day by day

5 Feb 2023 · 35 MW · 3 6 Feb 2023 · 37 MW · 3 7 Feb 2023 · 401 MW · 27 8 Feb 2023 · 396 MW · 25 9 Feb 2023 · 20 MW · 6 11 Feb 2023 · 177 MW · 11 12 Feb 2023 · 589 MW · 34 13 Feb 2023 · 995 MW · 48 14 Feb 2023 · 20 MW · 14 15 Feb 2023 · 97 MW · 16 18 Feb 2023 · 149 MW · 16 19 Feb 2023 · 160 MW · 8 20 Feb 2023 · 17 MW · 2 21 Feb 2023 · 11 MW · 2
5 Feb 8 Feb 13 Feb 20 Feb

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
57km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 16.9 mm on 23 Feb.

This area had burned before

95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,401 ha in 2020, 3,457 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,315 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.2% of the area of London (35 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. General Paz where it started
    3,323 ha reached on 5 Feb
    1.3 %
  2. 204 ha reached on 12 Feb
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
5 Feb 34.5 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
6 Feb 38.1 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Feb 39.2 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Feb 39.8 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 48
9 Feb 35.0 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Feb 37.1 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
11 Feb 37.9 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Feb 39.0 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Feb 38.8 °C 35 % 46 km/h 0.8 mm Extreme 54
14 Feb 33.5 °C 46 % 38 km/h 1.2 mm High 31
15 Feb 35.9 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 16
16 Feb 34.7 °C 40 % 42 km/h 7.0 mm Very high 40
17 Feb 21.7 °C 31 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
18 Feb 23.9 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
19 Feb 29.1 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Feb 33.8 °C 25 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Feb 34.5 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Feb after 34.9 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Feb after 31.0 °C 52 % 33 km/h 16.9 mm High 27

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 27.1, a minimum humidity of 23% and 9 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 22.

FWI at the start 27.1
Minimum humidity 23 %
Days without rain 9
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Santo Tomé fire, February 2022
3,408 ha 5 days FWI 28.8 Min. humidity 23 % 175 km away, in 2022

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.0 mm on 24 Feb.

What happened to them

5 days
median duration
3,517 ha
median area
18 %
went past 10,000 ha
5.1 mm
rain at the end (median; 21 of 22 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (3,507 ha against a median of 3,517 ha) and lasted 17 days, against 5 days.

In 1 of 22, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.1 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

16.9 mmfirst rain
23 Feb2 days after it ended
57km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 21 Feb, and on 23 Feb 16.9 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 21 of 22, with a median of 5.1 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Jan 2023
After · 28 Feb 2023

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 10 February 2023 the air beside the fire reached 155 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 64: 4.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak155 µg/m³
Days over the guideline12 days
PM10222 µg/m³
Optical depth1.11
3 Feb8 Feb13 Feb18 Feb23 Feb
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 215Every 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 General Paz fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 February 2023 and 21 February 2023: 17 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 3,507 hectares (35.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: General Paz (3,323 ha, 1.3 %); Concepción (204 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 22. Their median duration was 5 days and their median area 3,517 ha; 18 % went past 10,000 ha. In 1 of 22, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.1 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 215 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.