Intipuca fire, March 2020 Intipuca, Chirilagua
The fire started on 20 March 2020 in Intipuca, El Salvador, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,559 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 7th largest in Departamento de La Unión since 2016 (of 16 with a page). The largest in El Salvador in 2020, of 2.
The power measured by the satellite is low (26.6 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
- 1,559ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 20 Mar 2020 – 25 Mar 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 20 Mar
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 88
- in a single hotspot: 27 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 535MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 3 Apr.
This area had burned before
71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,182 ha in 2017, 194 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,105 ha that had burned before.
- 1,182 ha Intipuca fire, March 2017 4,087 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 179 ha Intipuca fire, March 2019 4,821 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 15 ha Chirilagua fire, March 2019 1,196 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Intipuca where it started1,285 ha reached on 20 Mar12 %
-
283 ha reached on 23 Mar1.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Mar | 33.3 °C | 31 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 21 Mar | 32.3 °C | 35 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 22 Mar | 32.8 °C | 38 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 23 Mar | 34.1 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 24 Mar | 32.9 °C | 37 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 25 Mar | 32.7 °C | 36 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 26 Mar after | 32.6 °C | 42 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 27 Mar after | 32.8 °C | 36 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 28 Mar after | 32.8 °C | 36 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 29 Mar after | 33.4 °C | 33 % | 41 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 35 |
| 30 Mar after | 33.4 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 31 Mar after | 32.4 °C | 41 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 1 Apr after | 31.7 °C | 54 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 2 Apr after | 31.5 °C | 54 % | 38 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 22 |
| 3 Apr after | 31.1 °C | 62 % | 36 km/h | 1.6 mm | Moderate 12 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 88Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Intipuca fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 March 2020 and 25 March 2020: 6 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 1,559 hectares (15.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Intipuca (1,285 ha, 12 %); Chirilagua (283 ha, 1.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 38 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.
Report an error
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.