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Orán fire, August 2019 Orán

Out · last detection 30 Aug 2019, 17:18 UTC

The fire started on 22 August 2019 in Orán, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,158 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 112th largest in Salta since 2016 (of 231 with a page). Number 91 in Argentina in 2019, of 158.

Burnt area
2,158ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
22 Aug 2019 – 30 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
22 Aug
2019
Heat detections
85
in a single hotspot: 113 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Aug 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Aug30 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2223252627282930

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
62km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 7 Sept.

This area had burned before

39% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1 ha in 2016, 1,528 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 831 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Orán where it started
    2,180 ha reached on 22 Aug
    0.2 %

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)
22 Aug 27.0 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Aug 28.5 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Aug 30.3 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Aug 33.4 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Aug 34.5 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Aug 34.4 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Aug 38.8 °C 20 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Aug 39.2 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Aug 32.3 °C 29 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
31 Aug after 26.2 °C 15 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Sept after 26.9 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Sept after 27.5 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
3 Sept after 25.8 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Sept after 23.1 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Sept after 23.7 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
6 Sept after 28.2 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Sept after 29.4 °C 33 % 42 km/h 1.1 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Aug 2019
After · 6 Sept 2019

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 · 85Every 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 22 August 2019 and 30 August 2019: 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 2,158 hectares (21.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Orán (2,180 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.