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Guáimaro fire, April 2020 Guáimaro

Out · last detection 29 Apr 2020, 18:14 UTC

The fire started on 11 April 2020 in Guáimaro, Cuba, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,285 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 8th largest in Camagüey since 2016 (of 63 with a page). Number 5 in Cuba in 2020, of 53.

Burnt area
2,285ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
11 Apr 2020 – 28 Apr 2020
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
11 Apr
2020
Heat detections
98
in a single hotspot: 208 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Apr 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Apr28 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

1112131517181920212326272829

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
48km/h · peak gust
34%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 1 May.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Guáimaro where it started
    2,298 ha reached on 11 Apr
    1.8 %

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)
11 Apr 34.6 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
12 Apr 34.1 °C 42 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Apr 33.5 °C 46 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Apr 34.0 °C 44 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Apr 34.6 °C 42 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
16 Apr 34.8 °C 41 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
17 Apr 33.3 °C 42 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 Apr 34.7 °C 40 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
19 Apr 35.1 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
20 Apr 33.1 °C 44 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Apr 35.7 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
22 Apr 34.3 °C 50 % 33 km/h 0.4 mm High 26
23 Apr 33.2 °C 51 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
24 Apr 35.1 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
25 Apr 35.1 °C 42 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
26 Apr 36.1 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Apr 35.3 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Apr 32.9 °C 47 % 42 km/h 0.3 mm High 32
29 Apr after 34.2 °C 41 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
30 Apr after 33.4 °C 46 % 30 km/h 0.5 mm High 27
1 May after 36.0 °C 39 % 27 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 21

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Apr 2020
After · 5 May 2020

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 · 98Every 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 Cuba ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Guáimaro fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 April 2020 and 28 April 2020: 18 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 2,285 hectares (22.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Guáimaro (2,298 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cuba (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: 105

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 105.

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 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.