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Pilcomayo fire, August 2018 Pilcomayo

Out · last detection 30 Aug 2018, 05:34 UTC

The fire started on 27 August 2018 in Pilcomayo, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,527 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 594th largest in Formosa since 2016 (of 620 with a page). Number 175 in Argentina in 2018, of 179.

The power measured by the satellite is low (15.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,527ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
27 Aug 2018 – 30 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
27 Aug
2018
Heat detections
36
in a single hotspot: 15 MW
Danger at start
13
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
215MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Aug 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Aug30 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

27282930

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
54km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.4 mm on 31 Aug.

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 100 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Pilcomayo where it started
    1,535 ha reached on 27 Aug
    0.3 %

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)
27 Aug 24.4 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
28 Aug 31.6 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
29 Aug 36.5 °C 26 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Aug 37.1 °C 28 % 53 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
31 Aug after 27.6 °C 53 % 50 km/h 3.4 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Aug 2018
After · 6 Sept 2018

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 · 36Every 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 Pilcomayo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 August 2018 and 30 August 2018: 4 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 1,527 hectares (15.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pilcomayo (1,535 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.