Maciel fire, January 2022 Maciel, Iturbe
The fire started on 18 January 2022 in Maciel, Paraguay, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,484 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 5th largest in Caazapá since 2016 (of 23 with a page). Number 48 in Paraguay in 2022, of 185.
- Burnt area
- 3,484ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 18 Jan 2022 – 23 Jan 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 18 Jan
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 129
- in a single hotspot: 175 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.4GW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.1 mm on 26 Jan.
This area had burned before
59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 467 ha in 2017, 694 ha in 2019, 2,427 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,045 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Maciel where it started2,408 ha reached on 18 Jan5.7 %
-
1,089 ha reached on 16 Jan4.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Jan | 40.2 °C | 25 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 17 Jan | 40.2 °C | 25 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 18 Jan | 40.8 °C | 25 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Jan | 39.9 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 36 |
| 20 Jan | 39.0 °C | 31 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 21 Jan | 40.2 °C | 28 % | 42 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 37 |
| 22 Jan | 40.6 °C | 24 % | 49 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 42 |
| 23 Jan | 41.8 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 24 Jan after | 42.2 °C | 26 % | 32 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 35 |
| 25 Jan after | 40.2 °C | 29 % | 29 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 35 |
| 26 Jan after | 40.1 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 5.1 mm | Moderate 19 |
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 · 129Every 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 Maciel fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 January 2022 and 23 January 2022: 6 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 3,484 hectares (34.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maciel (2,408 ha, 5.7 %); Iturbe (1,089 ha, 4.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 42.2 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very high.
- 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.