Lima fire, August 2021 Lima, Chore, San Pablo
The fire started on 16 August 2021 in Lima, Paraguay, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,501 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 16th largest in SAN PEDRO since 2016 (of 83 with a page). Number 81 in Paraguay in 2021, of 251.
- Burnt area
- 3,501ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 16 Aug 2021 – 22 Aug 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- districts
- Started on
- 16 Aug
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 150
- in a single hotspot: 65 MW
- Danger at start
- 23
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.8GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.4 mm on 25 Aug.
This area had burned before
34% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 303 ha in 2017, 99 ha in 2018, 907 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,188 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Lima where it started2,464 ha reached on 16 Aug3.8 %
-
670 ha reached on 19 Aug1.0 %
-
373 ha reached on 16 Aug1.1 %
-
10 ha reached on 18 Aug0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Aug | 33.5 °C | 31 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 17 Aug | 37.4 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 18 Aug | 39.3 °C | 15 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 19 Aug | 38.4 °C | 17 % | 57 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 20 Aug | 37.0 °C | 20 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 21 Aug | 36.2 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 22 Aug | 37.3 °C | 19 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 23 Aug after | 36.6 °C | 27 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 24 Aug after | 35.1 °C | 27 % | 59 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 25 Aug after | 23.7 °C | 66 % | 44 km/h | 5.4 mm | Very low 4 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 150Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lima fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 August 2021 and 22 August 2021: 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 3,501 hectares (35.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Lima (2,464 ha, 3.8 %); Chore (670 ha, 1.0 %); San Pablo (373 ha, 1.1 %); San Pedro Del Ykuamandiyu (10 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.3 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
- 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
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.