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Litueche fire, January 2017 Litueche, La Estrella, Marchigüe

Out · last detection 25 Jan 2017, 18:12 UTC

The fire started on 21 January 2017 in Litueche, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,771 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Región del Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins since 2016 (of 28 with a page). Number 13 in Chile in 2017, of 56.

Burnt area
7,771ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
21 Jan 2017 – 25 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
4
communes
Started on
21 Jan
2017
Heat detections
461
in a single hotspot: 654 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
20.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Jan25 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2122232425

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
57km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Litueche where it started
    2,841 ha reached on 21 Jan
    4.6 %
  2. La Estrella
    2,418 ha reached on 21 Jan
    5.6 %
  3. Marchigüe
    2,308 ha reached on 21 Jan
    3.5 %
  4. Pichilemu
    225 ha reached on 24 Jan
    0.3 %

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)
21 Jan 30.5 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Jan 26.9 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 Jan 29.4 °C 25 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Jan 30.8 °C 28 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Jan 32.4 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
26 Jan after 24.9 °C 48 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
27 Jan after 25.8 °C 48 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
28 Jan after 22.9 °C 52 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
29 Jan after 27.7 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
30 Jan after 29.3 °C 23 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Jan after 27.0 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Feb after 27.2 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Feb after 22.2 °C 39 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
3 Feb after 20.4 °C 43 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
4 Feb after 24.0 °C 44 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm High 26

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Jan 2017
After · 1 Feb 2017

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 · 461Every 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 Chile ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Litueche fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 January 2017 and 25 January 2017: 5 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 7,771 hectares (77.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Litueche (2,841 ha, 4.6 %); La Estrella (2,418 ha, 5.6 %); Marchigüe (2,308 ha, 3.5 %); Pichilemu (225 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.4 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Chile (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: 130 (CONAF) · 132

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 130 (CONAF) · 132.

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 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.