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PY · Paraguay · –

Mariscal Estigarribia fire, 6 August 2018 Mariscal Estigarribia

Out · last detection 26 Aug 2018, 17:37 UTC

The fire started on 6 August 2018 in Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,486 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 70th largest in Boquerón since 2016 (of 262 with a page). Number 21 in Paraguay in 2018, of 85.

Burnt area
2,486ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
6 Aug 2018 – 26 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
6 Aug
2018
Heat detections
132
in a single hotspot: 105 MW
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
71MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Aug26 Aug
26 Aug 2018

How it evolved, day by day

6 Aug 2018 · 27 MW · 4 7 Aug 2018 · 150 MW · 7 8 Aug 2018 · 370 MW · 8 9 Aug 2018 · 225 MW · 20 10 Aug 2018 · 111 MW · 13 11 Aug 2018 · 28 MW · 7 12 Aug 2018 · 9 MW · 4 14 Aug 2018 · 2 MW · 2 15 Aug 2018 · 10 MW · 3 16 Aug 2018 · 47 MW · 11 17 Aug 2018 · 6 MW · 8 18 Aug 2018 · 23 MW · 4 19 Aug 2018 · 4 MW · 3 22 Aug 2018 · 80 MW · 9 23 Aug 2018 · 124 MW · 14 24 Aug 2018 · 34 MW · 7 25 Aug 2018 · 8 MW · 5 26 Aug 2018 · 11 MW · 3
8 Aug 15 Aug 19 Aug 25 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
67km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 1 Sept.

This area had burned before

5% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 172 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 125 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.6% of the area of London (25 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
    2,495 ha reached on 6 Aug
    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 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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)
6 Aug 26.6 °C 45 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
7 Aug 29.9 °C 43 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
8 Aug 23.7 °C 23 % 52 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 19
9 Aug 24.1 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
10 Aug 26.8 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
11 Aug 29.5 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
12 Aug 35.5 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Aug 36.5 °C 26 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
14 Aug 27.6 °C 50 % 59 km/h 0.5 mm High 28
15 Aug 22.9 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
16 Aug 28.9 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
17 Aug 31.7 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
18 Aug 36.0 °C 26 % 67 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Aug 26.5 °C 46 % 59 km/h 4.5 mm Low 8
20 Aug 12.9 °C 40 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
21 Aug 18.9 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
22 Aug 24.9 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
23 Aug 33.8 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
24 Aug 27.5 °C 31 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Aug 21.1 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
26 Aug 26.3 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
27 Aug after 30.8 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Aug after 36.8 °C 19 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Aug after 39.4 °C 18 % 71 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
30 Aug after 39.9 °C 22 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
31 Aug after 28.0 °C 45 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Sept after 18.4 °C 53 % 43 km/h 2.1 mm Moderate 20

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 16.9, a minimum humidity of 45% and 16 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 36.

FWI at the start 16.9
Minimum humidity 45 %
Days without rain 16
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Mariscal Estigarribia fire, July 2017
6,794 ha 19 days FWI 17.6 Min. humidity 45 % 147 km away, in 2017

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

What happened to them

9 days
median duration
2,010 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
6.5 mm
rain at the end (median; 33 of 36 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (2,486 ha against a median of 2,010 ha) and lasted 21 days, against 9 days.

In 3 of 36, 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 6.5 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

2.1 mmfirst rain
1 Sept6 days after it ended
67km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 26 Aug, and on 1 Sept 2.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 33 of 36, with a median of 6.5 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 · 30 Jul 2018
After · 2 Sept 2018

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 · 132Every 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?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 August 2018 and 26 August 2018: 21 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 2,486 hectares (24.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mariscal Estigarribia (2,495 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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: 36. Their median duration was 9 days and their median area 2,010 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 3 of 36, 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 6.5 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 132 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 2020, 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.