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Intipuca fire, 17 March 2017 Intipuca, Chirilagua, El Carmen

Out · last detection 27 Mar 2017, 19:21 UTC

The fire started on 17 March 2017 in Intipuca, El Salvador, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,087 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Departamento de La Unión since 2016 (of 16 with a page). The largest in El Salvador in 2017, of 17.

Burnt area
4,087ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
17 Mar 2017 – 27 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
4
municipalities
Started on
17 Mar
2017
Heat detections
157
in a single hotspot: 50 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
997MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Mar 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Mar27 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
50km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

16% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 663 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Intipuca where it started
    3,749 ha reached on 17 Mar
    34 %
  2. Chirilagua
    237 ha reached on 18 Mar
    1.2 %
  3. El Carmen
    82 ha reached on 23 Mar
    0.8 %
  4. Null
    43 ha
    0.5 %

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)
17 Mar 33.5 °C 37 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Mar 33.9 °C 38 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Mar 35.1 °C 33 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Mar 34.1 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Mar 33.5 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Mar 33.1 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Mar 32.6 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Mar 32.8 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Mar 32.6 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Mar 31.3 °C 49 % 41 km/h 0.4 mm High 31
27 Mar 30.4 °C 54 % 40 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 21
28 Mar after 30.5 °C 56 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
29 Mar after 30.4 °C 55 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
30 Mar after 30.2 °C 55 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
31 Mar after 31.4 °C 55 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
1 Apr after 32.4 °C 43 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
2 Apr after 32.4 °C 45 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Apr after 32.3 °C 50 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Apr after 32.2 °C 58 % 38 km/h 0.6 mm High 22
5 Apr after 33.4 °C 46 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
6 Apr after 33.4 °C 47 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Mar 2017
After · 3 Apr 2017

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 · 157Every 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 El Salvador ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Intipuca fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 March 2017 and 27 March 2017: 11 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 4,087 hectares (40.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Intipuca (3,749 ha, 34 %); Chirilagua (237 ha, 1.2 %); El Carmen (82 ha, 0.8 %); Null (43 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of El Salvador (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.

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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 (Public Domain). 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.