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Pirané fire, 24 August 2020 Pirané

Out · last detection 30 Aug 2020, 05:28 UTC

The fire started on 24 August 2020 in Pirané, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,237 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 301th largest in Formosa since 2016 (of 620 with a page). Number 333 in Argentina in 2020, of 671.

Burnt area
2,237ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
24 Aug 2020 – 30 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
24 Aug
2020
Heat detections
150
in a single hotspot: 55 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Aug 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Aug30 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

24252627282930

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
73km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,895 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,931 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Pirané where it started
    2,240 ha reached on 20 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)
24 Aug 33.2 °C 28 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Aug 35.6 °C 27 % 73 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
26 Aug 36.9 °C 25 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
27 Aug 36.9 °C 23 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Aug 34.4 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Aug 39.8 °C 16 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
30 Aug 27.6 °C 52 % 52 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
31 Aug after 17.1 °C 57 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Sept after 20.1 °C 46 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
2 Sept after 19.4 °C 43 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
3 Sept after 21.6 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
4 Sept after 27.5 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Sept after 36.9 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Sept after 25.4 °C 47 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Sept after 23.0 °C 51 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
8 Sept after 26.6 °C 43 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
9 Sept after 34.2 °C 29 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Aug 2020
After · 6 Sept 2020

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 · 150Every 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 Pirané fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 August 2020 and 30 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 2,237 hectares (22.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pirané (2,240 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 73 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, class Extreme.
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.