Palenque fire, November 2020 Palenque, Vinces
The fire started on 10 November 2020 in Palenque, Ecuador, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,009 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 27th largest in Los Ríos since 2016 (of 28 with a page). Number 14 in Ecuador in 2020, of 14.
- Burnt area
- 1,009ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 10 Nov 2020 – 16 Nov 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- cantons
- Started on
- 10 Nov
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 32
- in a single hotspot: 168 MW
- Danger at start
- 24
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- 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 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.9 mm on 20 Nov.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Palenque where it started681 ha reached on 10 Nov1.2 %
-
335 ha reached on 10 Nov0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Nov | 33.0 °C | 38 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 11 Nov | 33.0 °C | 37 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 12 Nov | 31.6 °C | 39 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 13 Nov | 33.8 °C | 36 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 14 Nov | 33.8 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 15 Nov | 31.7 °C | 44 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 16 Nov | 30.9 °C | 44 % | 25 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 17 Nov after | 30.9 °C | 44 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 18 Nov after | 29.4 °C | 51 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 19 Nov after | 28.0 °C | 59 % | 19 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 20 Nov after | 31.0 °C | 53 % | 18 km/h | 5.9 mm | Very low 3 |
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.
Detections table · 32Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,437 haVinces21 November 2022 · 4 days · 12 km away
- 1,912 haPuebloviejo25 November 2020 · 4 days · 12 km away
- 5,648 haPuebloviejoNovember 2025 · 8 days · 14 km away
- 2,071 haVinces25 November 2025 · 5 days · 14 km away
- 2,297 haPalenque20 November 2022 · 5 days · 16 km away
- 2,041 haPuebloviejo10 November 2020 · 7 days · 23 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Palenque fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 November 2020 and 16 November 2020: 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 1,009 hectares (10.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Palenque (681 ha, 1.2 %); Vinces (335 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Ecuador (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
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 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.