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Paredones fire, February 2019 Paredones, Pumanque

Out · last detection 1 Mar 2019, 05:06 UTC

The fire started on 25 February 2019 in Paredones, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,427 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 14th largest in Región del Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins since 2016 (of 28 with a page). Number 10 in Chile in 2019, of 44.

Burnt area
2,427ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
25 Feb 2019 – 1 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
25 Feb
2019
Heat detections
123
in a single hotspot: 118 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Mar 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Feb1 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

2526271

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
36km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

39% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 952 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Paredones where it started
    1,917 ha reached on 25 Feb
    3.3 %
  2. Pumanque
    513 ha reached on 25 Feb
    1.2 %

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)
25 Feb 25.1 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
26 Feb 27.6 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Feb 27.3 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Feb 22.5 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
1 Mar 28.0 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
2 Mar after 26.5 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Mar after 23.7 °C 45 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
4 Mar after 24.8 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Mar after 27.6 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Mar after 27.3 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Mar after 25.8 °C 41 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 Mar after 23.6 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Mar after 24.6 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Mar after 25.7 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
11 Mar after 25.9 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Feb 2019
After · 8 Mar 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 · 123Every 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 Chile ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Paredones fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 February 2019 and 1 March 2019: 5 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 2,427 hectares (24.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Paredones (1,917 ha, 3.3 %); Pumanque (513 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.0 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 36 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 Chile (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: 130 (CONAF) · 132

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 130 (CONAF) · 132.

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 (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.