General Taboada fire, August 2026 Juan F. Ibarra, General Taboada
The fire started on 25 August 2026 in General Taboada, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,926 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 169th largest in Santiago del Estero since 2016 (of 320 with a page). Number 42 in Argentina in 2026, of 74.
- Burnt area
- 1,926ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 25 Aug 2026 – 28 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- departments
- Started on
- 25 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 58
- in a single hotspot: 196 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.5GW
- sum of detected power
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 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 18 ha in 2022, 16 ha in 2024, 1,626 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,268 ha that had burned before.
- 709 ha Juan F. Ibarra fire, October 2025 2,221 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 616 ha Juan F. Ibarra fire, October 2025 4,659 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 256 ha General Taboada fire, October 2025 1,532 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 18 ha Juan F. Ibarra fire, September 2022 1,526 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 16 ha Juan F. Ibarra fire, September 2024 1,554 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
1,485 ha reached on 25 Aug0.2 %
-
General Taboada where it started451 ha reached on 25 Aug0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Aug | 26.0 °C | 29 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 26 Aug | 32.0 °C | 31 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 27 Aug | 25.4 °C | 55 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 28 Aug | 24.2 °C | 52 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 29 Aug after | 24.0 °C | 49 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 30 Aug after | 24.2 °C | 51 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 31 Aug after | 26.3 °C | 44 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 1 Sept after | 25.1 °C | 43 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 2 Sept after | 30.4 °C | 32 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 3 Sept after | 24.2 °C | 34 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 4 Sept after | 21.3 °C | 25 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 5 Sept after | 21.2 °C | 31 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 6 Sept after | 15.0 °C | 33 % | 43 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 26 |
| 7 Sept after | 18.5 °C | 34 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 28 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 58Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 4,659 haJuan F. Ibarra3 October 2025 · 3 days · 4 km away
- 3,961 haJuan F. Ibarra19 September 2017 · 2 days · 23 km away
- 3,263 haJuan F. Ibarra28 September 2020 · 5 days · 24 km away
- 3,071 haSarmientoSeptember 2017 · 1 day · 30 km away
- 4,516 haJuan F. Ibarra18 August 2021 · 12 days · 36 km away
- 2,836 haGeneral Taboada14 September 2016 · 16 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the General Taboada fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 August 2026 and 28 August 2026: 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 1,926 hectares (19.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Juan F. Ibarra (1,485 ha, 0.2 %); General Taboada (451 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.0 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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
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.