Skip to content
worldfires
GT · Guatemala · →

Poptún fire, 7 April 2020 Poptún

Out · last detection 13 Apr 2020, 19:54 UTC

The fire started on 7 April 2020 in Poptún, Guatemala, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,189 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 29th largest in Petén since 2016 (of 157 with a page). Number 14 in Guatemala in 2020, of 40.

Burnt area
2,189ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
7 Apr 2020 – 14 Apr 2020
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
7 Apr
2020
Heat detections
93
in a single hotspot: 102 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Apr 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Apr14 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

789101113

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
41km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 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. Poptún 42,996 inhabitants where it started
    2,202 ha reached on 7 Apr
    2.0 %

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)
7 Apr 34.5 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
8 Apr 35.7 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Apr 36.7 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
10 Apr 38.0 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Apr 37.9 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Apr 38.2 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Apr 38.5 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Apr 37.6 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Apr after 37.4 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Apr after 37.5 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Apr after 34.6 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Apr after 36.0 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Apr after 36.5 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Apr after 38.5 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Apr after 38.0 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Apr after 36.3 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Apr after 38.3 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
24 Apr after 39.7 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 39
25 Apr after 39.3 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Apr after 37.0 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.2 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Mar 2020
After · 21 Apr 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 · 93Every 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 Guatemala ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Poptún fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 April 2020 and 14 April 2020: 8 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 2,189 hectares (21.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Poptún (2,202 ha, 2.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guatemala (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: 122 · 123 · 1566

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 122 · 123 · 1566.

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.