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Postrervalle fire, September 2020 Vallegrande, Postrervalle, Cabezas

Out · last detection 20 Oct 2020, 17:00 UTC

The fire started on 22 September 2020 in Postrervalle, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 61,164 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 28th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 834 with a page). Number 5 in Bolivia in 2020, of 211.

Burnt area
61,164ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
29days
22 Sept 2020 – 20 Oct 2020
Municipalities hit
4
municipalities
Started on
22 Sept
2020
Heat detections
3,545
in a single hotspot: 277 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
35.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Oct 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Sept20 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2223242526272829301234567891011121314151617181920

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
63km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.8 mm on 21 Oct.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Vallegrande 17,249 inhabitants
    41,033 ha
    13 %
  2. Postrervalle 1,806 inhabitants where it started
    15,156 ha
    13 %
  3. Cabezas 32,961 inhabitants
    5,284 ha
    1.0 %
  4. Gutiérrez 14,389 inhabitants
    81 ha
    0.0 %

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)
22 Sept 28.1 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 Sept 32.3 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Sept 37.6 °C 18 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Sept 39.5 °C 16 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Sept 40.1 °C 17 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Sept 31.2 °C 40 % 29 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 16
28 Sept 28.3 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.9 mm High 24
29 Sept 36.9 °C 22 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Sept 38.6 °C 19 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Oct 39.0 °C 18 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Oct 37.3 °C 23 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Oct 34.4 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Oct 34.4 °C 31 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Oct 32.3 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Oct 36.6 °C 25 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Oct 38.7 °C 15 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
8 Oct 39.3 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
9 Oct 37.2 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Oct 34.3 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Oct 35.1 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.8 mm High 32
12 Oct 34.9 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Oct 34.6 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
14 Oct 36.6 °C 23 % 57 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 48
15 Oct 30.0 °C 44 % 32 km/h 2.5 mm Low 9
16 Oct 31.5 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.6 mm High 23
17 Oct 35.7 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Oct 37.3 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Oct 37.5 °C 23 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Oct 34.4 °C 35 % 36 km/h 6.1 mm Low 9
21 Oct after 30.6 °C 48 % 36 km/h 7.8 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Sept 2020
After · 27 Oct 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 · 3,545Every 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 Bolivia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Postrervalle fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 September 2020 and 20 October 2020: 29 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 61,164 hectares (611.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Vallegrande (41,033 ha, 13 %); Postrervalle (15,156 ha, 13 %); Cabezas (5,284 ha, 1.0 %); Gutiérrez (81 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.1 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bolivia (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: 119 · 110

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 119 · 110.

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 ADM3 (Public Domain). 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.