How long did the Mella fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 January 2023 and 30 January 2023: 8 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 1,798 hectares (18.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mella (1,677 ha, 4.8 %); Cueto (132 ha, 0.4 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 32.0 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.

Where does this data come from?

From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cuba (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

CU · Cuba · 2023-01-23 → 2023-01-30

Mella fire, 23 January 2023 Mella, Cueto

Out · last detection 30 Jan 2023, 18:54 UTC

The fire started on 23 January 2023 in Mella, Cuba, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,798 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Santiago de Cuba since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 11 in Cuba in 2023, of 46.

Burnt area: 1,798ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 8days; 23 Jan 2023 – 30 Jan 2023
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 23 Jan; 2023
Heat detections: 61; in a single hotspot: 40 MW
Danger at start: 18; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 448MW; sum of detected power

Play back 30 Jan 2023

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Jan30 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

232425262830

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

The weather it burned in

32°high

54km/h · peak gust

35%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 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

Mella where it started

1,677 ha reached on 23 Jan

4.8 %
Cueto

132 ha reached on 28 Jan

0.4 %

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)
23 Jan	32.0 °C	37 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
24 Jan	31.2 °C	38 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
25 Jan	30.1 °C	47 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
26 Jan	31.8 °C	35 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
27 Jan	31.3 °C	43 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
28 Jan	30.5 °C	44 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
29 Jan	28.3 °C	54 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
30 Jan	30.6 °C	44 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
31 Jan after	30.9 °C	47 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
1 Feb after	29.9 °C	51 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
2 Feb after	30.4 °C	49 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
3 Feb after	30.9 °C	45 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
4 Feb after	29.9 °C	51 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
5 Feb after	31.5 °C	44 %	27 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 19
6 Feb after	31.8 °C	40 %	34 km/h	0.1 mm	High 24
7 Feb after	29.5 °C	55 %	50 km/h	0.5 mm	High 26
8 Feb after	31.0 °C	46 %	46 km/h	0.1 mm	High 25
9 Feb after	31.0 °C	46 %	45 km/h	0.1 mm	High 25

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 16 Jan 2023

After · 6 Feb 2023

Before After

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 26 January 2023 the air beside the fire reached 49 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 23: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak49 µg/m³

Days over the guideline1 day

PM1070 µg/m³

Optical depth0.32

WHO 15

212223242526272829303112

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 61Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Cuba ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mella fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 January 2023 and 30 January 2023: 8 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 1,798 hectares (18.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mella (1,677 ha, 4.8 %); Cueto (132 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 32.0 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cuba (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: 105

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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 105.

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 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.

Where it burned