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General Taboada fire, August 2021 General Taboada, Avellaneda

Out · last detection 1 Sept 2021, 18:13 UTC

The fire started on 24 August 2021 in General Taboada, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,310 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 36th largest in Santiago del Estero since 2016 (of 320 with a page). Number 53 in Argentina in 2021, of 217.

Burnt area
3,310ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
24 Aug 2021 – 1 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
2
departments
Started on
24 Aug
2021
Heat detections
129
in a single hotspot: 250 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Aug1 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2426272829311

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
61km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.7 mm on 6 Sept.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,819 ha in 2018, 51 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,557 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. General Taboada where it started
    2,654 ha reached on 24 Aug
    0.4 %
  2. Avellaneda
    675 ha reached on 26 Aug
    0.2 %

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 Aug 21.3 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Aug 22.4 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Aug 25.2 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Aug 27.2 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
28 Aug 29.2 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
29 Aug 30.4 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Aug 33.4 °C 28 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
31 Aug 37.0 °C 24 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
1 Sept 38.8 °C 17 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
2 Sept after 30.0 °C 30 % 51 km/h 0.5 mm Extreme 53
3 Sept after 23.4 °C 55 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Sept after 29.2 °C 42 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
5 Sept after 26.1 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Sept after 28.7 °C 38 % 41 km/h 2.7 mm Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Aug 2021
After · 8 Sept 2021

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 · 129Every 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 24 August 2021 and 1 September 2021: 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 3,310 hectares (33.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: General Taboada (2,654 ha, 0.4 %); Avellaneda (675 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 74, 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.