Pilcomayo fire, 27 July 2020 Pilcomayo
The fire started on 27 July 2020 in Pilcomayo, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,785 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 113th largest in Formosa since 2016 (of 620 with a page). Number 147 in Argentina in 2020, of 671.
- Burnt area
- 3,785ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 27 Jul 2020 – 2 Aug 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- departments
- Started on
- 27 Jul
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 105
- in a single hotspot: 50 MW
- Danger at start
- 11
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 14.2 mm on 12 Aug.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,092 ha in 2016, 35 ha in 2018, 3,957 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,589 ha that had burned before.
- 1,894 ha Pilcomayo fire, September 2016 5,377 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,853 ha Pilcomayo fire, September 2019 4,100 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,222 ha Pilcomayo fire, August 2019 5,043 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 882 ha Pilcomayo fire, July 2019 1,863 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 198 ha Pilcomayo fire, September 2016 2,622 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Pilcomayo where it started3,793 ha reached on 27 Jul0.7 %
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 Jul | 30.1 °C | 42 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 28 Jul | 20.6 °C | 44 % | 53 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 29 Jul | 16.4 °C | 37 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 30 Jul | 21.2 °C | 36 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 31 Jul | 27.7 °C | 49 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 1 Aug | 32.3 °C | 35 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 2 Aug | 32.6 °C | 31 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 3 Aug after | 32.1 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 4 Aug after | 32.7 °C | 26 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 5 Aug after | 33.0 °C | 24 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 6 Aug after | 33.1 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 7 Aug after | 33.3 °C | 23 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 8 Aug after | 33.0 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 9 Aug after | 33.3 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 10 Aug after | 34.6 °C | 22 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 11 Aug after | 24.0 °C | 36 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 12 Aug after | 13.6 °C | 67 % | 38 km/h | 14.2 mm | Very low 0 |
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 · 105Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Pilcomayo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 July 2020 and 2 August 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 3,785 hectares (37.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Pilcomayo (3,793 ha, 0.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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
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.