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Gualeguay fire, 29 July 2022 Gualeguay

Out · last detection 11 Sept 2022, 17:41 UTC

The fire started on 29 July 2022 in Gualeguay, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 44 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 23,596 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 5th largest in Buenos Aires since 2016 (of 210 with a page). Number 9 in Argentina in 2022, of 441.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Gualeguay · 2020Gualeguay · 2021Gualeguay · 2021Gualeguay · 2020

Burnt area
23,596ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
44days
29 Jul 2022 – 10 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
29 Jul
2022
Heat detections
1,668
in a single hotspot: 275 MW
Danger at start
6
Low · FWI index
Average daily power
1.0GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Jul10 Sept
11 Sept 2022

How it evolved, day by day

11 Aug 2022 · 168 MW · 12 12 Aug 2022 · 895 MW · 31 13 Aug 2022 · 2,619 MW · 80 14 Aug 2022 · 1,200 MW · 80 15 Aug 2022 · 2,371 MW · 155 16 Aug 2022 · 116 MW · 15 17 Aug 2022 · 174 MW · 43 18 Aug 2022 · 941 MW · 98 19 Aug 2022 · 1,448 MW · 81 20 Aug 2022 · 1,397 MW · 87 21 Aug 2022 · 1,873 MW · 99 22 Aug 2022 · 4,166 MW · 125 23 Aug 2022 · 3,265 MW · 271 24 Aug 2022 · 1,458 MW · 125 25 Aug 2022 · 942 MW · 45 26 Aug 2022 · 261 MW · 27 27 Aug 2022 · 3 MW · 1 28 Aug 2022 · 708 MW · 33 29 Aug 2022 · 514 MW · 31 2 Sept 2022 · 2,826 MW · 64 3 Sept 2022 · 668 MW · 42 4 Sept 2022 · 172 MW · 11 5 Sept 2022 · 36 MW · 7 6 Sept 2022 · 22 MW · 3 7 Sept 2022 · 881 MW · 30 8 Sept 2022 · 328 MW · 18 9 Sept 2022 · 472 MW · 19 10 Sept 2022 · 208 MW · 23 11 Sept 2022 · 108 MW · 12
11 Aug 16 Aug 21 Aug 22 Aug 26 Aug 3 Sept 8 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

27°high
56km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 18 Sept.

This area had burned before

80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 15,057 ha in 2020, 9,150 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 18,985 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 15% of the area of London (236 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Gualeguay where it started
    23,741 ha reached on 11 Aug
    3.6 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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 Jul 18.9 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
30 Jul 21.0 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
31 Jul 20.6 °C 43 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
1 Aug 20.1 °C 47 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
2 Aug 18.3 °C 58 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
3 Aug 15.1 °C 72 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm Low 6
4 Aug 14.0 °C 55 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
5 Aug 18.6 °C 35 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
6 Aug 16.6 °C 44 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
7 Aug 15.9 °C 49 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
8 Aug 14.1 °C 53 % 33 km/h 1.3 mm Very low 4
9 Aug 15.8 °C 55 % 26 km/h 1.4 mm Very low 2
10 Aug 16.5 °C 48 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 5
11 Aug 19.1 °C 45 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
12 Aug 21.0 °C 45 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
13 Aug 24.1 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
14 Aug 26.0 °C 51 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
15 Aug 18.7 °C 30 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
16 Aug 20.9 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
17 Aug 14.5 °C 35 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
18 Aug 13.4 °C 31 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
19 Aug 18.0 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
20 Aug 18.5 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
21 Aug 19.3 °C 30 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
22 Aug 18.6 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
23 Aug 22.8 °C 43 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
24 Aug 26.9 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
25 Aug 25.0 °C 55 % 18 km/h 0.6 mm Low 11
26 Aug 26.1 °C 58 % 50 km/h 1.7 mm Low 7
27 Aug 19.7 °C 36 % 49 km/h 24.1 mm Very low 1
28 Aug 13.6 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
29 Aug 16.9 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
30 Aug 18.9 °C 40 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm Low 9
31 Aug 24.0 °C 47 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
1 Sept 20.0 °C 70 % 27 km/h 0.3 mm Low 7
2 Sept 18.0 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
3 Sept 19.6 °C 30 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
4 Sept 21.6 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
5 Sept 22.7 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
6 Sept 22.8 °C 46 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
7 Sept 26.2 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
8 Sept 24.1 °C 51 % 56 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 20
9 Sept 15.0 °C 35 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
10 Sept 19.4 °C 26 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
11 Sept after 18.4 °C 31 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
12 Sept after 20.6 °C 27 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
13 Sept after 22.3 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
14 Sept after 22.6 °C 35 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
15 Sept after 23.0 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
16 Sept after 24.5 °C 36 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
17 Sept after 26.6 °C 34 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
18 Sept after 23.0 °C 53 % 35 km/h 1.8 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Jul 2022
After · 17 Sept 2022

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 · 1,668Every 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 Gualeguay fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 29 July 2022 to 10 September 2022 (44 days). The perimeter dates it from 29 July 2022 to 3 September 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 23,596 hectares (236.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Gualeguay (23,741 ha, 3.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.9 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, class Moderate.
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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 3 September 2022 → 10 September 2022.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 6 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 29 July 2022 to 3 September 2022. 1,668 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.