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General Taboada fire, March 2018 General Taboada

Out · last detection 31 Mar 2018, 18:50 UTC

The fire started on 28 March 2018 in General Taboada, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,134 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 124th largest in Santiago del Estero since 2016 (of 320 with a page). Number 97 in Argentina in 2018, of 179.

Burnt area
2,134ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
28 Mar 2018 – 31 Mar 2018
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
28 Mar
2018
Heat detections
110
in a single hotspot: 44 MW
Danger at start
13
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
993MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Mar 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Mar31 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

28293031

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
32km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.5 mm on 8 Apr.

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 Taboada where it started
    2,146 ha reached on 28 Mar
    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)
28 Mar 29.3 °C 35 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
29 Mar 33.9 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
30 Mar 33.6 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
31 Mar 34.2 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Apr after 31.5 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
2 Apr after 28.9 °C 45 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
3 Apr after 30.1 °C 50 % 23 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 14
4 Apr after 32.3 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
5 Apr after 35.8 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
6 Apr after 27.2 °C 49 % 39 km/h 0.4 mm High 22
7 Apr after 28.2 °C 58 % 35 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 16
8 Apr after 29.7 °C 54 % 51 km/h 6.5 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Mar 2018
After · 7 Apr 2018

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 · 110Every 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 Taboada fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 March 2018 and 31 March 2018: 4 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 2,134 hectares (21.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered General Taboada (2,146 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, class 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.