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Marchigüe fire, December 2016 Marchigüe

Out · last detection 15 Dec 2016, 19:21 UTC

The fire started on 14 December 2016 in Marchigüe, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,908 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 19th largest in Región del Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins since 2016 (of 28 with a page). Number 12 in Chile in 2016, of 28.

Burnt area
1,908ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
14 Dec 2016 – 15 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
14 Dec
2016
Heat detections
88
in a single hotspot: 161 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Dec15 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1415

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
41km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 42 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.6 mm on 25 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. Marchigüe where it started
    1,913 ha reached on 14 Dec
    2.9 %

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)
14 Dec 33.7 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Dec 26.4 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Dec after 23.5 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
17 Dec after 24.6 °C 43 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Dec after 29.8 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Dec after 28.8 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Dec after 27.1 °C 29 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Dec after 26.4 °C 36 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Dec after 26.4 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Dec after 25.9 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Dec after 23.8 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Dec after 22.2 °C 40 % 52 km/h 4.6 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Dec 2016
After · 22 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 · 88Every 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 Chile ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Marchigüe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 December 2016 and 15 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 1,908 hectares (19.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Marchigüe (1,913 ha, 2.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Chile (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: 130 (CONAF) · 132

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 130 (CONAF) · 132.

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 (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.