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Picunches fire, February 2016 Picunches

Out · last detection 26 Feb 2016, 05:14 UTC

The fire started on 25 February 2016 in Picunches, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,840 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 11th largest in Neuquén since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 94 in Argentina in 2016, of 255.

Burnt area
2,840ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
25 Feb 2016 – 26 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
25 Feb
2016
Heat detections
111
in a single hotspot: 197 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Feb26 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

2526

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

The weather it burned in

21°high
65km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 days 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. Picunches where it started
    2,843 ha reached on 25 Feb
    0.5 %

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)
25 Feb 21.2 °C 18 % 65 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Feb 17.5 °C 25 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Feb after 15.6 °C 26 % 68 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Feb after 24.8 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
29 Feb after 26.8 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
1 Mar after 22.6 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.6 mm High 22
2 Mar after 27.7 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
3 Mar after 27.0 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Mar after 26.5 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
5 Mar after 22.8 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
6 Mar after 23.5 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
7 Mar after 24.9 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 29

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Feb 2016
After · 4 Mar 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 · 111Every 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 Argentina ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Picunches fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 February 2016 and 26 February 2016: 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 2,840 hectares (28.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Picunches (2,843 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 21.2 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 65 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Argentina (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 · 100

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 911 · 100.

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.