Metán fire, October 2022 Metán
The fire started on 24 October 2022 in Metán, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,147 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 115th largest in Salta since 2016 (of 231 with a page). Number 250 in Argentina in 2022, of 442.
- Burnt area
- 2,147ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 24 Oct 2022 – 26 Oct 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- departments
- Started on
- 24 Oct
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 137
- in a single hotspot: 190 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.3GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,534 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,143 ha that had burned before.
- 1,924 ha Metán fire, September 2018 2,670 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,394 ha Metán fire, September 2018 2,912 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 216 ha Metán fire, August 2018 2,848 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Metán where it started2,159 ha reached on 24 Oct0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Oct | 36.4 °C | 22 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 25 Oct | 40.0 °C | 17 % | 61 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 26 Oct | 34.9 °C | 23 % | 75 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 27 Oct after | 35.0 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 28 Oct after | 36.7 °C | 22 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 29 Oct after | 42.1 °C | 12 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 30 Oct after | 40.2 °C | 18 % | 82 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very extreme 79 |
| 31 Oct after | 21.5 °C | 17 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 1 Nov after | 25.1 °C | 10 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 2 Nov after | 28.3 °C | 11 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 3 Nov after | 29.7 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 4 Nov after | 31.8 °C | 16 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 5 Nov after | 33.9 °C | 17 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 27 October 2022 the air beside the fire reached 45 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 137Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Metán fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 October 2022 and 26 October 2022: 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 2,147 hectares (21.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Metán (2,159 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 75 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Argentina (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: 911 · 100
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
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 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.