Mapiripán fire, 1 February 2022 Mapiripán
The fire started on 1 February 2022 in Mapiripán, Colombia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,150 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 53th largest in Meta since 2016 (of 257 with a page). Number 41 in Colombia in 2022, of 160.
- Burnt area
- 3,150ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 1 Feb 2022 – 4 Feb 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 1 Feb
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 82
- in a single hotspot: 75 MW
- Danger at start
- 19
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.3GW
- 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 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 7 Feb.
This area had burned before
44% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 639 ha in 2016, 653 ha in 2018, 258 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,371 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
3,171 ha reached on 1 Feb0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Feb | 33.2 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 2 Feb | 34.2 °C | 40 % | 39 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 3 Feb | 31.3 °C | 51 % | 38 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 4 Feb | 31.3 °C | 46 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 5 Feb after | 30.7 °C | 50 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 6 Feb after | 32.8 °C | 48 % | 31 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 7 Feb after | 30.1 °C | 53 % | 33 km/h | 2.0 mm | Low 5 |
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 · 82Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 11,273 haPuerto Gaitán2 January 2022 · 10 days · 27 km away
- 10,116 haPuerto Gaitán21 December 2025 · 7 days · 27 km away
- 9,019 haPuerto Gaitán23 January 2024 · 9 days · 32 km away
- 32,765 haPuerto Gaitán7 January 2016 · 24 days · 33 km away
- 13,519 haPuerto Gaitán5 February 2020 · 12 days · 35 km away
- 17,013 haPuerto Gaitán20 February 2023 · 5 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mapiripán fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 February 2022 and 4 February 2022: 4 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 3,150 hectares (31.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mapiripán (3,171 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 19, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Colombia (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: 123 · 119
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 International (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.