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Maipú fire, July 2017 Maipú, Almirante Brown

Out · last detection 28 Jul 2017, 04:56 UTC

The fire started on 20 July 2017 in Maipú, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,849 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 32th largest in Chaco since 2016 (of 139 with a page). Number 87 in Argentina in 2017, of 256.

Burnt area
2,849ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
20 Jul 2017 – 27 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
2
departments
Started on
20 Jul
2017
Heat detections
83
in a single hotspot: 116 MW
Danger at start
14
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Jul 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jul27 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

20222324262728

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
46km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 10.8 mm on 2 Aug.

This area had burned before

25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 725 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Maipú where it started
    2,669 ha reached on 18 Jul
    0.9 %
  2. Almirante Brown
    189 ha reached on 22 Jul
    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)
20 Jul 20.5 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
21 Jul 22.9 °C 32 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
22 Jul 26.2 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
23 Jul 30.5 °C 39 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
24 Jul 31.5 °C 43 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
25 Jul 27.4 °C 60 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
26 Jul 30.8 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
27 Jul 30.0 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
28 Jul after 30.3 °C 30 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Jul after 30.8 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
30 Jul after 31.3 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
31 Jul after 18.4 °C 63 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
1 Aug after 17.1 °C 73 % 34 km/h 0.8 mm Low 9
2 Aug after 15.9 °C 76 % 49 km/h 10.8 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Jul 2017
After · 3 Aug 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 · 83Every 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 Maipú fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 July 2017 and 27 July 2017: 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 2,849 hectares (28.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maipú (2,669 ha, 0.9 %); Almirante Brown (189 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, class High.
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.