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General Pedernera fire, 8 September 2016 General Pedernera, Chacabuco

Out · last detection 10 Sept 2016, 17:41 UTC

The fire started on 8 September 2016 in General Pedernera, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,768 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 124th largest in San Luis since 2016 (of 151 with a page). Number 189 in Argentina in 2016, of 255.

Burnt area
1,768ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
8 Sept 2016 – 10 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
2
departments
Started on
8 Sept
2016
Heat detections
43
in a single hotspot: 64 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
704MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Sept10 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

8910

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
40km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. General Pedernera where it started
    1,637 ha reached on 8 Sept
    0.1 %
  2. Chacabuco
    120 ha reached on 10 Sept
    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)
8 Sept 25.3 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Sept 27.1 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
10 Sept 28.6 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Sept after 28.3 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Sept after 18.4 °C 39 % 61 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 39
13 Sept after 16.8 °C 27 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Sept after 17.3 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
15 Sept after 22.1 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Sept after 24.7 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Sept after 24.7 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 Sept after 18.3 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
19 Sept after 22.4 °C 38 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
20 Sept after 24.0 °C 27 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Sept 2016
After · 17 Sept 2016

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 · 43Every 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 Pedernera fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 September 2016 and 10 September 2016: 3 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 1,768 hectares (17.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: General Pedernera (1,637 ha, 0.1 %); Chacabuco (120 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.6 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very 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.