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Ischilín fire, 15 August 2020 Ischilín

Out · last detection 21 Aug 2020, 04:58 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2020 in Ischilín, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,721 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 14th largest in Córdoba since 2016 (of 95 with a page). Number 43 in Argentina in 2020, of 671.

Burnt area
8,721ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
15 Aug 2020 – 21 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
15 Aug
2020
Heat detections
352
in a single hotspot: 241 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Energy released
8.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Aug 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug21 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

151617182021

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

The weather it burned in

19°high
52km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 25 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Ischilín where it started
    8,774 ha reached on 15 Aug
    1.7 %

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)
15 Aug 15.0 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
16 Aug 17.5 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Aug 19.0 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
18 Aug 19.2 °C 22 % 47 km/h 0.7 mm High 31
19 Aug 6.4 °C 42 % 52 km/h 1.9 mm Low 8
20 Aug 9.0 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
21 Aug 13.8 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
22 Aug after 15.4 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
23 Aug after 18.3 °C 18 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Aug after 21.5 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Aug after 25.2 °C 36 % 35 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 13

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Aug 2020
After · 28 Aug 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 · 352Every 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 Ischilín fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 August 2020 and 21 August 2020: 7 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 8,721 hectares (87.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ischilín (8,774 ha, 1.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 19.2 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, class High.
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

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 · 100.

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.