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Guata fire, 6 April 2020 Guata

Out · last detection 24 Apr 2020, 19:47 UTC

The fire started on 6 April 2020 in Guata, Honduras, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,638 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 37th largest in Olancho since 2016 (of 227 with a page). Number 44 in Honduras in 2020, of 174.

The power measured by the satellite is low (27.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,638ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
19days
6 Apr 2020 – 24 Apr 2020
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
6 Apr
2020
Heat detections
161
in a single hotspot: 27 MW
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
683MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Apr 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Apr24 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

67891011121314151617181920212324

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
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 7 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. Guata where it started
    2,654 ha reached on 1 Apr
    3.9 %

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)
1 Apr 32.5 °C 37 % 39 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 17
2 Apr 33.1 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
3 Apr 34.2 °C 34 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 23
4 Apr 33.8 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 23
5 Apr 34.4 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
6 Apr 34.3 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
7 Apr 34.2 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
8 Apr 34.6 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Apr 34.7 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
10 Apr 36.0 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Apr 34.5 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Apr 33.7 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Apr 35.4 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Apr 34.7 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Apr 34.4 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Apr 34.1 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Apr 33.2 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Apr 34.4 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Apr 34.2 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Apr 35.8 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Apr 34.2 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Apr 34.1 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Apr 34.5 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Apr 36.0 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Apr after 34.4 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Apr after 34.1 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Apr after 34.1 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm High 37
28 Apr after 32.1 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
29 Apr after 33.2 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Apr after 32.1 °C 45 % 33 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 21
1 May after 30.3 °C 45 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
2 May after 31.4 °C 40 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
3 May after 31.8 °C 41 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
4 May after 32.5 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
5 May after 32.9 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
6 May after 32.5 °C 45 % 33 km/h 0.7 mm High 23
7 May after 32.1 °C 40 % 35 km/h 1.1 mm High 22

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Mar 2020
After · 1 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 · 161Every 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 Guata fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 April 2020 and 24 April 2020: 19 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 2,638 hectares (26.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Guata (2,654 ha, 3.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % 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 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.