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Orán fire, November 2017 Orán

Out · last detection 1 Dec 2017, 18:02 UTC

The fire started on 12 November 2017 in Orán, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,745 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 41th largest in Salta since 2016 (of 231 with a page). Number 64 in Argentina in 2017, of 256.

Burnt area
3,745ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
20days
12 Nov 2017 – 1 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
12 Nov
2017
Heat detections
354
in a single hotspot: 331 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Nov1 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

121314151718192021222324252628301

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

The weather it burned in

44°high
73km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 22.9 mm on 2 Dec.

This area had burned before

6% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 324 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 211 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Orán where it started
    3,782 ha reached on 12 Nov
    0.3 %

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)
12 Nov 37.6 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Nov 37.9 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Nov 40.3 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Nov 44.1 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Nov 32.9 °C 21 % 73 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Nov 37.3 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Nov 27.1 °C 31 % 58 km/h 13.2 mm Very low 5
19 Nov 35.2 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
20 Nov 38.2 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
21 Nov 32.0 °C 34 % 68 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
22 Nov 32.6 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
23 Nov 37.9 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Nov 40.9 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Nov 31.9 °C 39 % 63 km/h 0.5 mm High 33
26 Nov 34.9 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
27 Nov 38.3 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Nov 37.0 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
29 Nov 37.4 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm High 31
30 Nov 36.6 °C 38 % 37 km/h 7.2 mm Low 7
1 Dec 38.5 °C 25 % 28 km/h 2.2 mm Moderate 14
2 Dec after 32.7 °C 52 % 44 km/h 22.9 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Nov 2017
After · 8 Dec 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 · 354Every 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 Argentina ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Orán fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 November 2017 and 1 December 2017: 20 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 3,745 hectares (37.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Orán (3,782 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 44.1 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 73 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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
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 · 100.

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.