Navidad fire, January 2019 Navidad
The fire started on 3 January 2019 in Navidad, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,046 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 28th largest in Región del Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins since 2016 (of 28 with a page). Number 43 in Chile in 2019, of 44.
- Burnt area
- 1,046ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 1day
- 3 Jan 2019 – 3 Jan 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 3 Jan
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 35
- in a single hotspot: 82 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 603 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
Navidad where it started944 ha reached on 3 Jan3.1 %
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 Jan | 27.5 °C | 20 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 4 Jan after | 20.1 °C | 52 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 5 Jan after | 18.0 °C | 62 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 6 Jan after | 20.0 °C | 56 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 7 Jan after | 19.2 °C | 60 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 8 Jan after | 19.8 °C | 54 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 9 Jan after | 20.1 °C | 48 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 10 Jan after | 22.1 °C | 42 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 11 Jan after | 20.2 °C | 46 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 12 Jan after | 20.5 °C | 43 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 13 Jan after | 20.9 °C | 52 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
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.
Detections table · 35Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,285 haNavidadJanuary 2017 · 4 days · 3 km away
- 7,771 haLituecheJanuary 2017 · 5 days · 24 km away
- 3,595 haSanto DomingoJanuary 2019 · 2 days · 24 km away
- 3,932 haLituecheNovember 2016 · 2 days · 30 km away
- 4,693 haSanto DomingoJanuary 2017 · 4 days · 31 km away
- 3,161 haLa EstrellaFebruary 2024 · 3 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Navidad fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 January 2019 and 3 January 2019: 1 day 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 1,046 hectares (10.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Navidad (944 ha, 3.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 27.5 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.