Skip to content
worldfires
en
HN · Honduras · →

Juticalpa fire, March 2020 Juticalpa

Out · last detection 3 May 2020, 18:38 UTC

The fire started on 27 March 2020 in Juticalpa, Honduras, and satellites saw it burning for 38 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,313 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 6th largest in Olancho since 2016 (of 227 with a page). Number 8 in Honduras in 2020, of 174.

The power measured by the satellite is low (27.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Juticalpa · 2019Juticalpa · 2016Manto · 2020Manto · 2020

Burnt area
9,313ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
38days
27 Mar 2020 – 3 May 2020
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
27 Mar
2020
Heat detections
572
in a single hotspot: 28 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Average daily power
88MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Mar3 May
3 May 2020

How it evolved, day by day

27 Mar 2020 · 20 MW · 2 28 Mar 2020 · 124 MW · 11 29 Mar 2020 · 93 MW · 12 1 Apr 2020 · 15 MW · 3 2 Apr 2020 · 40 MW · 5 3 Apr 2020 · 13 MW · 4 4 Apr 2020 · 5 MW · 1 5 Apr 2020 · 20 MW · 6 6 Apr 2020 · 30 MW · 5 7 Apr 2020 · 14 MW · 13 8 Apr 2020 · 333 MW · 43 9 Apr 2020 · 139 MW · 26 10 Apr 2020 · 227 MW · 33 11 Apr 2020 · 50 MW · 29 12 Apr 2020 · 384 MW · 69 13 Apr 2020 · 255 MW · 49 14 Apr 2020 · 302 MW · 55 15 Apr 2020 · 139 MW · 39 16 Apr 2020 · 124 MW · 21 17 Apr 2020 · 44 MW · 9 18 Apr 2020 · 13 MW · 12 19 Apr 2020 · 125 MW · 24 20 Apr 2020 · 51 MW · 10 21 Apr 2020 · 39 MW · 7 22 Apr 2020 · 3 MW · 2 23 Apr 2020 · 21 MW · 6 24 Apr 2020 · 33 MW · 9 25 Apr 2020 · 137 MW · 23 26 Apr 2020 · 54 MW · 8 27 Apr 2020 · 80 MW · 11 28 Apr 2020 · 3 MW · 2 29 Apr 2020 · 35 MW · 3 1 May 2020 · 11 MW · 1 2 May 2020 · 60 MW · 7 3 May 2020 · 35 MW · 12
27 Mar 3 Apr 8 Apr 12 Apr 13 Apr 18 Apr 23 Apr 28 Apr

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
49km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 6 May.

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 294 ha in 2016, 512 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 619 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 5.9% of the area of London (93 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Juticalpa where it started
    9,372 ha reached on 27 Mar
    3.6 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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 Mar 33.7 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Mar 34.6 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
29 Mar 34.8 °C 23 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Mar 32.5 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Mar 35.5 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Apr 35.3 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
2 Apr 37.9 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Apr 36.4 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Apr 35.9 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Apr 35.9 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Apr 35.8 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 43
7 Apr 35.6 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Apr 36.1 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Apr 35.9 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Apr 38.5 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Apr 35.5 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Apr 35.5 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Apr 36.2 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Apr 35.5 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Apr 36.1 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Apr 35.9 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Apr 34.5 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Apr 34.5 °C 32 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Apr 34.9 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Apr 37.9 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Apr 37.3 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Apr 36.1 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Apr 36.1 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Apr 37.5 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Apr 35.9 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Apr 35.6 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Apr 35.9 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Apr 33.0 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Apr 34.0 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Apr 36.7 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 May 33.4 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
2 May 34.3 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 May 34.2 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 May after 35.7 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
5 May after 33.3 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 May after 36.0 °C 37 % 37 km/h 1.7 mm High 22

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Mar 2020
After · 10 May 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 · 572Every 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 Honduras ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Juticalpa fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 March 2020 to 3 May 2020 (38 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 April 2020 to 28 April 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 9,313 hectares (93.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Juticalpa (9,372 ha, 3.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Honduras (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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 28 April 2020 → 3 May 2020.
  2. Start date: 2 April 2020 → 27 March 2020.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 2 April 2020 to 28 April 2020. 572 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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 International (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.