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Guaimaca fire, 29 March 2018 Guaimaca, Talanga

Out · last detection 2 Apr 2018, 18:25 UTC

The fire started on 29 March 2018 in Guaimaca, Honduras, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,165 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 28th largest in Francisco Morazán since 2016 (of 177 with a page). Number 9 in Honduras in 2018, of 73.

Burnt area
3,165ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
29 Mar 2018 – 2 Apr 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
29 Mar
2018
Heat detections
126
in a single hotspot: 91 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Apr 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Mar2 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

29303112

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
41km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 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. Guaimaca where it started
    3,154 ha reached on 29 Mar
    4.0 %
  2. Talanga
    29 ha
    0.1 %

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)
29 Mar 32.6 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Mar 34.3 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Mar 33.9 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Apr 31.5 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Apr 32.8 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Apr after 32.1 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Apr after 31.8 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Apr after 32.4 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
6 Apr after 32.8 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Apr after 32.1 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Apr after 34.3 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Apr after 31.8 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
10 Apr after 32.7 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Apr after 33.2 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Apr after 32.1 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Mar 2018
After · 9 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 · 126Every 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 Honduras ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Guaimaca fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 March 2018 and 2 April 2018: 5 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 3,165 hectares (31.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Guaimaca (3,154 ha, 4.0 %); Talanga (29 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Honduras (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

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.

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 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.