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Ixiamas fire, 15 July 2016 Ixiamas

Out · last detection 9 Aug 2016, 05:13 UTC

The fire started on 15 July 2016 in Ixiamas, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 43,344 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the largest fire in La Paz since 2016 (of 115 with a page). Number 2 in Bolivia in 2016, of 187.

Burnt area
43,344ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
26days
15 Jul 2016 – 9 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
15 Jul
2016
Heat detections
1,421
in a single hotspot: 356 MW
Danger at start
15
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
23.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Jul9 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1516171819202122232425262728293031123456789

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
44km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 18 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. Ixiamas 11,828 inhabitants where it started
    43,570 ha
    1.2 %

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 Jul 31.6 °C 50 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
16 Jul 32.2 °C 53 % 40 km/h 4.0 mm Very low 5
17 Jul 23.0 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm Low 11
18 Jul 27.7 °C 46 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
19 Jul 28.7 °C 46 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
20 Jul 28.3 °C 43 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
21 Jul 30.1 °C 44 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
22 Jul 31.0 °C 42 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
23 Jul 32.4 °C 38 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
24 Jul 33.0 °C 33 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
25 Jul 33.1 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
26 Jul 33.4 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
27 Jul 31.6 °C 41 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
28 Jul 31.5 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
29 Jul 33.0 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
30 Jul 34.1 °C 31 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
31 Jul 35.1 °C 28 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
1 Aug 35.0 °C 29 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
2 Aug 34.1 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
3 Aug 33.8 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Aug 34.8 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
5 Aug 35.8 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Aug 34.5 °C 36 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Aug 35.1 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.4 mm High 32
8 Aug 33.2 °C 48 % 38 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 12
9 Aug 27.1 °C 73 % 43 km/h 29.6 mm Very low 0
10 Aug after 24.8 °C 58 % 38 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 5
11 Aug after 28.7 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
12 Aug after 31.3 °C 43 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
13 Aug after 33.8 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
14 Aug after 33.3 °C 43 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
15 Aug after 33.7 °C 42 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
16 Aug after 35.2 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
17 Aug after 35.6 °C 42 % 44 km/h 0.3 mm High 25
18 Aug after 35.2 °C 42 % 33 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Jul 2016
After · 16 Aug 2016

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 · 1,421Every 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 Bolivia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ixiamas fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 July 2016 and 9 August 2016: 26 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 43,344 hectares (433.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ixiamas (43,570 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bolivia (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: 119 · 110

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 119 · 110.

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 ADM3 (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.