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Melipilla fire, December 2018 Melipilla

Out · last detection 14 Dec 2018, 05:50 UTC

The fire started on 12 December 2018 in Melipilla, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,038 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 28th largest in Región Metropolitana de Santiago since 2016 (of 29 with a page). Number 9 in Chile in 2018, of 10.

Burnt area
1,038ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
12 Dec 2018 – 14 Dec 2018
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
12 Dec
2018
Heat detections
85
in a single hotspot: 95 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
508MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Dec 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Dec14 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

121314

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

The weather it burned in

26°high
45km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Melipilla where it started
    1,042 ha reached on 11 Dec
    0.8 %

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)
12 Dec 25.7 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
13 Dec 18.6 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
14 Dec 22.7 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
15 Dec after 26.1 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
16 Dec after 27.9 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
17 Dec after 24.3 °C 39 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
18 Dec after 25.7 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
19 Dec after 23.6 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
20 Dec after 24.0 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
21 Dec after 26.2 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
22 Dec after 23.2 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
23 Dec after 26.5 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
24 Dec after 26.2 °C 41 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 22

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Dec 2018
After · 21 Dec 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 · 85Every 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 Melipilla fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 December 2018 and 14 December 2018: 3 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 1,038 hectares (10.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Melipilla (1,042 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 25.7 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 45 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 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.