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Itakyry fire, September 2019 Itakyry, Vaqueria, Ybyrarobaná

Out · last detection 1 Oct 2019, 17:18 UTC

The fire started on 28 September 2019 in Itakyry, Paraguay, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,813 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

Number 35 in Paraguay in 2019, of 231.

Burnt area
4,813ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
28 Sept 2019 – 1 Oct 2019
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
28 Sept
2019
Heat detections
205
in a single hotspot: 61 MW
Danger at start
13
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Oct 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Sept1 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2829301

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
50km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.2 mm on 2 Oct.

This area had burned before

36% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,181 ha in 2017, 582 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Itakyry where it started
    2,877 ha reached on 27 Sept
    1.5 %
  2. Vaqueria
    1,308 ha reached on 30 Sept
    1.1 %
  3. Ybyrarobaná
    641 ha reached on 30 Sept
    0.6 %

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)
27 Sept 32.2 °C 31 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
28 Sept 32.8 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
29 Sept 34.7 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
30 Sept 36.4 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
1 Oct 38.2 °C 27 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
2 Oct after 34.8 °C 39 % 55 km/h 2.2 mm Moderate 13

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Sept 2019
After · 8 Oct 2019

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 · 205Every 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 Paraguay ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Itakyry fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 September 2019 and 1 October 2019: 4 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 4,813 hectares (48.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Itakyry (2,877 ha, 1.5 %); Vaqueria (1,308 ha, 1.1 %); Ybyrarobaná (641 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Paraguay (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: 132 · 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 132 · 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 (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.