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Nentón fire, 3 April 2017 Nentón

Out · last detection 12 Apr 2017, 19:22 UTC

The fire started on 3 April 2017 in Nentón, Guatemala, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,160 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 13th largest in Huehuetenango since 2016 (of 17 with a page). Number 22 in Guatemala in 2017, of 36.

The power measured by the satellite is low (10.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,160ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
3 Apr 2017 – 11 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
3 Apr
2017
Heat detections
48
in a single hotspot: 11 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
154MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Apr11 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

3458101112

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
55km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.0 mm on 17 Apr.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Nentón where it started
    1,166 ha reached on 27 Mar
    1.5 %

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 Apr 32.5 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Apr 32.1 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
5 Apr 33.1 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
6 Apr 28.1 °C 55 % 55 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 17
7 Apr 27.8 °C 48 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
8 Apr 28.1 °C 48 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
9 Apr 29.4 °C 39 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
10 Apr 29.8 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
11 Apr 27.9 °C 41 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
12 Apr after 25.6 °C 49 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
13 Apr after 27.0 °C 47 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
14 Apr after 26.6 °C 52 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
15 Apr after 27.9 °C 44 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
16 Apr after 26.9 °C 53 % 35 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 15
17 Apr after 27.5 °C 53 % 29 km/h 5.0 mm Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Mar 2017
After · 18 Apr 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 · 48Every 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 Guatemala ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Nentón fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 April 2017 and 11 April 2017: 9 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 1,160 hectares (11.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Nentón (1,166 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guatemala (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: 122 · 123 · 1566

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 122 · 123 · 1566.

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.