Mulchén fire, 3 February 2023 Mulchén
The fire started on 3 February 2023 in Mulchén, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,462 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 9th largest in Región del Bío-Bío since 2016 (of 74 with a page). Number 14 in Chile in 2023, of 70.
- Burnt area
- 8,462ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 3 Feb 2023 – 12 Feb 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 3 Feb
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 411
- in a single hotspot: 160 MW
- Danger at start
- 49
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 6.0GW
- 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 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
27% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 869 ha in 2017, 643 ha in 2018, 106 ha in 2019, 128 ha in 2021, 853 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,285 ha that had burned before.
- 637 ha Mulchén fire, January 2017 1,080 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 450 ha Mulchén fire, February 2022 1,629 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 227 ha Mulchén fire, February 2022 5,902 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mulchén where it started8,464 ha reached on 3 Feb4.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Feb | 40.2 °C | 13 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 4 Feb | 32.8 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 5 Feb | 28.8 °C | 37 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 6 Feb | 29.6 °C | 33 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 7 Feb | 29.5 °C | 26 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 8 Feb | 29.5 °C | 34 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 9 Feb | 30.2 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 10 Feb | 28.5 °C | 36 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 11 Feb | 28.1 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 12 Feb | 25.1 °C | 47 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 13 Feb after | 24.2 °C | 36 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 14 Feb after | 22.8 °C | 43 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 15 Feb after | 24.1 °C | 44 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 16 Feb after | 21.7 °C | 32 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 17 Feb after | 27.7 °C | 13 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 18 Feb after | 28.5 °C | 17 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 19 Feb after | 27.1 °C | 36 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 20 Feb after | 27.1 °C | 28 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 21 Feb after | 28.2 °C | 29 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 22 Feb after | 28.5 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 23 Feb after | 28.9 °C | 31 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 24 Feb after | 26.9 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 25 Feb after | 21.8 °C | 35 % | 41 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 30 |
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 5 February 2023 the air beside the fire reached 823 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 526: 35 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 · 411Every 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 Mulchén fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 February 2023 and 12 February 2023: 10 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 8,462 hectares (84.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mulchén (8,464 ha, 4.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, class Very 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
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.