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Mocache fire, November 2017 Mocache

Out · last detection 10 Nov 2017, 18:03 UTC

The fire started on 8 November 2017 in Mocache, Ecuador, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,646 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 9th largest in Los Ríos since 2016 (of 28 with a page). Number 2 in Ecuador in 2017, of 4.

Burnt area
1,646ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
8 Nov 2017 – 10 Nov 2017
Municipalities hit
1
cantons
Started on
8 Nov
2017
Heat detections
24
in a single hotspot: 53 MW
Danger at start
5
Low · FWI index
Energy released
307MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Nov 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Nov10 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

810

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
27km/h · peak gust
54%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 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. Mocache where it started
    1,657 ha reached on 8 Nov
    2.9 %

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)
8 Nov 30.5 °C 58 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Low 5
9 Nov 29.9 °C 54 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
10 Nov 29.2 °C 59 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
11 Nov after 29.0 °C 59 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
12 Nov after 30.1 °C 56 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
13 Nov after 29.9 °C 56 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
14 Nov after 30.0 °C 55 % 23 km/h 0.9 mm Low 6
15 Nov after 27.2 °C 66 % 14 km/h 0.2 mm Low 5
16 Nov after 27.8 °C 68 % 21 km/h 0.3 mm Low 5
17 Nov after 27.7 °C 63 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Low 5
18 Nov after 28.5 °C 66 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
19 Nov after 28.6 °C 62 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
20 Nov after 28.4 °C 63 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Nov 2017
After · 17 Nov 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 · 24Every 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 Ecuador ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mocache fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 November 2017 and 10 November 2017: 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 1,646 hectares (16.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mocache (1,657 ha, 2.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.5 °C, humidity dropped to 54 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 6, class Low.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Ecuador (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

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 911.

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.