Skip to content
worldfires
AR · Argentina · →

Loventué fire, 21 December 2016 Loventué, Utracán

Out · last detection 22 Dec 2016, 04:48 UTC

The fire started on 21 December 2016 in Loventué, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,223 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 130th largest in La Pampa since 2016 (of 190 with a page). Number 131 in Argentina in 2016, of 255.

The power measured by the satellite is low (19.1 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,223ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
21 Dec 2016 – 22 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
2
departments
Started on
21 Dec
2016
Heat detections
55
in a single hotspot: 19 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
408MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Dec22 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

2122

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
62km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 31 Dec.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Loventué where it started
    2,068 ha reached on 21 Dec
    0.2 %
  2. Utracán
    170 ha
    0.0 %

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)
21 Dec 27.8 °C 13 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Dec 29.3 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Dec after 32.6 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Dec after 35.3 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.7 mm Very high 41
25 Dec after 31.8 °C 14 % 56 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 45
26 Dec after 26.4 °C 19 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Dec after 31.4 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Dec after 34.9 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Dec after 37.1 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Dec after 37.1 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 45
31 Dec after 32.5 °C 18 % 49 km/h 1.4 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Dec 2016
After · 29 Dec 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 · 55Every 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 Argentina ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Loventué fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 December 2016 and 22 December 2016: 2 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 2,223 hectares (22.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Loventué (2,068 ha, 0.2 %); Utracán (170 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.3 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Argentina (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 · 100

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 911 · 100.

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 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.