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PY · Paraguay · –

Mariscal Estigarribia fire, 13 January 2017 Mariscal Estigarribia

Out · last detection 26 Jan 2017, 05:27 UTC

The fire started on 13 January 2017 in Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,838 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 159th largest in Boquerón since 2016 (of 262 with a page). Number 173 in Paraguay in 2017, of 261.

Burnt area
1,838ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
13 Jan 2017 – 26 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
13 Jan
2017
Heat detections
120
in a single hotspot: 58 MW
Danger at start
6
Low · FWI index
Average daily power
86MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Jan26 Jan
26 Jan 2017

How it evolved, day by day

13 Jan 2017 · 5 MW · 3 14 Jan 2017 · 48 MW · 8 15 Jan 2017 · 174 MW · 14 16 Jan 2017 · 71 MW · 17 17 Jan 2017 · 300 MW · 24 18 Jan 2017 · 94 MW · 21 19 Jan 2017 · 30 MW · 13 20 Jan 2017 · 74 MW · 9 21 Jan 2017 · 14 MW · 1 23 Jan 2017 · 9 MW · 1 25 Jan 2017 · 207 MW · 8 26 Jan 2017 · 3 MW · 1
13 Jan 17 Jan 23 Jan

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
49km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.2 mm on 1 Feb.

This area had burned before

82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,082 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,511 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.2% of the area of London (18 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Mariscal Estigarribia where it started
    1,842 ha reached on 13 Jan
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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 Jan 37.5 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
14 Jan 38.6 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
15 Jan 39.3 °C 31 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Jan 38.9 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 18
17 Jan 39.4 °C 36 % 28 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 18
18 Jan 39.1 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
19 Jan 38.7 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 Jan 40.8 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Jan 40.0 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
22 Jan 39.2 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
23 Jan 36.7 °C 39 % 41 km/h 28.6 mm Low 8
24 Jan 32.9 °C 53 % 31 km/h 13.0 mm Very low 0
25 Jan 35.5 °C 46 % 26 km/h 0.4 mm Low 7
26 Jan 30.2 °C 50 % 46 km/h 7.0 mm Low 7
27 Jan after 32.8 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
28 Jan after 34.5 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
29 Jan after 37.6 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
30 Jan after 37.7 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
31 Jan after 38.8 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
1 Feb after 39.2 °C 35 % 44 km/h 3.2 mm High 26

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 5.8, a minimum humidity of 44% and rain the day before. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 23.

FWI at the start 5.8
Minimum humidity 44 %
Days without rain 0
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Mariscal Estigarribia fire, July 2022
1,586 ha 5 days FWI 6.0 Min. humidity 44 % 21 km away, in 2022

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

9 days
median duration
1,900 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
5.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 21 of 23 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (1,838 ha against a median of 1,900 ha) and lasted 14 days, against 9 days.

In 2 of 23, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.7 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

3.2 mmfirst rain
1 Feb6 days after it ended
49km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 26 Jan, and on 1 Feb 3.2 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 21 of 23, with a median of 5.7 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Jan 2017
After · 2 Feb 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 · 120Every 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 Paraguay

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mariscal Estigarribia fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 13 January 2017 to 26 January 2017 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 January 2017 to 21 January 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,838 hectares (18.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mariscal Estigarribia (1,842 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 23. Their median duration was 9 days and their median area 1,900 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 2 of 23, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.7 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 21 January 2017 → 26 January 2017.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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 132 · 911.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 13 January 2017 to 21 January 2017. 120 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.