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Pichilemu fire, July 2019 Pichilemu

Out · last measured on 12 Jul 2019

The fire started on 1 July 2019 in Pichilemu, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,069 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 26th largest in Región del Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins since 2016 (of 28 with a page). Number 41 in Chile in 2019, of 44.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
1,069ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
1 Jul 2019 – 12 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
1 Jul
2019
Danger at start
0
Very low · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

14°high
50km/h · peak gust
51%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 11.7 mm on 21 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Pichilemu where it started
    1,071 ha
    1.5 %

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)
1 Jul 11.2 °C 58 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 0
2 Jul 13.3 °C 59 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 0
3 Jul 12.8 °C 58 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
4 Jul 12.7 °C 53 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
5 Jul 13.7 °C 51 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
6 Jul 10.2 °C 82 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
7 Jul 13.3 °C 73 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
8 Jul 12.6 °C 72 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
9 Jul 13.3 °C 70 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
10 Jul 11.6 °C 77 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
11 Jul 13.1 °C 65 % 16 km/h 0.8 mm Very low 1
12 Jul 13.2 °C 65 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
13 Jul after 14.4 °C 56 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
14 Jul after 14.3 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
15 Jul after 15.6 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
16 Jul after 13.7 °C 60 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 5
17 Jul after 13.0 °C 70 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
18 Jul after 13.8 °C 63 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
19 Jul after 13.6 °C 51 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
20 Jul after 10.9 °C 59 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
21 Jul after 11.0 °C 54 % 52 km/h 11.7 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Jun 2019
After · 19 Jul 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.

Other fires nearby

All fires in Chile ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Pichilemu fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 July 2019 and 12 July 2019: 12 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 1,069 hectares (10.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pichilemu (1,071 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 13.7 °C, humidity dropped to 51 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 2, class Very low.
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.