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Ixiamas fire, 4 September 2018 Ixiamas

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2018, 05:50 UTC

The fire started on 4 September 2018 in Ixiamas, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,841 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 87th largest in La Paz since 2016 (of 116 with a page). Number 53 in Bolivia in 2018, of 80.

Burnt area
3,841ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
4 Sept 2018 – 13 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
4 Sept
2018
Heat detections
118
in a single hotspot: 72 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Sept13 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

45678910111314

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
42km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 14 Sept.

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
    3,868 ha
    0.1 %

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)
4 Sept 31.4 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
5 Sept 33.3 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
6 Sept 34.1 °C 20 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
7 Sept 36.3 °C 20 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
8 Sept 38.2 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
9 Sept 38.1 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
10 Sept 39.0 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
11 Sept 39.2 °C 29 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
12 Sept 39.2 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
13 Sept 38.9 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Sept after 38.0 °C 40 % 35 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 17

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Aug 2018
After · 20 Sept 2018

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 · 118Every 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 4 September 2018 and 13 September 2018: 10 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 3,841 hectares (38.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ixiamas (3,868 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.