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Magdalena fire, October 2016 Magdalena

Out · last detection 20 Oct 2016, 16:56 UTC

The fire started on 13 October 2016 in Magdalena, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,011 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 608th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 902 with a page). Number 118 in Bolivia in 2016, of 187.

Burnt area
4,011ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
13 Oct 2016 – 20 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
13 Oct
2016
Heat detections
107
in a single hotspot: 400 MW
Danger at start
2
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
2.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Oct20 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

13151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
41km/h · peak gust
42%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 27.5 mm on 21 Oct.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Magdalena 12,785 inhabitants where it started
    4,039 ha
    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)
13 Oct 35.2 °C 54 % 37 km/h 1.8 mm Very low 2
14 Oct 34.2 °C 60 % 34 km/h 8.7 mm Very low 0
15 Oct 35.0 °C 52 % 30 km/h 0.6 mm Very low 2
16 Oct 36.7 °C 46 % 41 km/h 0.6 mm Low 7
17 Oct 35.0 °C 50 % 38 km/h 2.1 mm Very low 3
18 Oct 36.7 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm Low 9
19 Oct 36.9 °C 42 % 38 km/h 0.4 mm Low 11
20 Oct 37.2 °C 42 % 29 km/h 4.7 mm Very low 3
21 Oct after 25.9 °C 88 % 31 km/h 27.5 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Oct 2016
After · 27 Oct 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 · 107Every 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 Bolivia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Magdalena fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 October 2016 and 20 October 2016: 8 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 4,011 hectares (40.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Magdalena (4,039 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 42 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 11, class Low.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bolivia (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: 119 · 110

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 119 · 110.

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 (Public Domain). 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.