Pailón fire, December 2023 Pailón
The fire started on 20 December 2023 in Pailón, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,083 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 432th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 834 with a page). Number 127 in Bolivia in 2023, of 248.
- Burnt area
- 5,083ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 20 Dec 2023 – 21 Dec 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 20 Dec
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 244
- in a single hotspot: 39 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.6GW
- 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. Rain came after the fire: 16.9 mm on 26 Dec.
This area had burned before
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,637 ha in 2019, 1,470 ha in 2020, 4,884 ha in 2021, 3,646 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,711 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
5,116 ha0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Dec | 35.9 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 21 Dec | 36.8 °C | 38 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 22 Dec after | 39.3 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 23 Dec after | 38.0 °C | 39 % | 50 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 27 |
| 24 Dec after | 37.8 °C | 40 % | 53 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 30 |
| 25 Dec after | 38.3 °C | 39 % | 50 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 29 |
| 26 Dec after | 31.2 °C | 63 % | 25 km/h | 16.9 mm | Very low 1 |
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 22 December 2023 the air beside the fire reached 40 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.7 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 · 244Every 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 Pailón fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 December 2023 and 21 December 2023: 2 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 5,083 hectares (50.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Pailón (5,116 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bolivia (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: 119 · 110
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 (Public Domain). 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.