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Paita fire, September 2016 Paita, Sullana

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2016, 07:16 UTC

The fire started on 7 September 2016 in Paita, Peru, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,076 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Piura since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 44 in Peru in 2016, of 58.

Burnt area
1,076ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
7 Sept 2016 – 13 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
2
provinces
Started on
7 Sept
2016
Heat detections
60
in a single hotspot: 44 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
579MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Sept13 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

78910111314

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
41km/h · peak gust
46%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Paita 6,655 inhabitants where it started
    1,042 ha reached on 5 Sept
    0.6 %
  2. Sullana 7,775 inhabitants
    41 ha
    0.0 %

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)
7 Sept 29.9 °C 47 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
8 Sept 29.4 °C 48 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Sept 28.1 °C 51 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Sept 28.5 °C 50 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Sept 28.7 °C 51 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Sept 28.2 °C 53 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Sept 30.9 °C 46 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Sept after 29.1 °C 48 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Sept after 26.9 °C 55 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
16 Sept after 28.7 °C 52 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Sept after 29.3 °C 52 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
18 Sept after 30.6 °C 50 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Sept after 29.1 °C 51 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 Sept after 29.6 °C 50 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
21 Sept after 29.8 °C 52 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Sept after 31.2 °C 47 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
23 Sept after 29.4 °C 52 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Aug 2016
After · 20 Sept 2016

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 · 60Every 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 Peru ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Paita fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 September 2016 and 13 September 2016: 7 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 1,076 hectares (10.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Paita (1,042 ha, 0.6 %); Sullana (41 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.9 °C, humidity dropped to 46 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Peru (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: 116 · 105

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 116 · 105.

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.