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Puerto Suárez fire, 15 September 2016 Puerto Suárez

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2016, 04:30 UTC

The fire started on 15 September 2016 in Puerto Suárez, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,916 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 310th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 834 with a page). Number 56 in Bolivia in 2016, of 187.

Burnt area
6,916ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
15 Sept 2016 – 23 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
15 Sept
2016
Heat detections
188
in a single hotspot: 203 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
3.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Sept23 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
49km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 3 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. Puerto Suárez 33,006 inhabitants where it started
    6,897 ha
    0.5 %

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)
15 Sept 29.5 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
16 Sept 32.8 °C 31 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
17 Sept 37.2 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
18 Sept 38.7 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
19 Sept 29.1 °C 57 % 49 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 21
20 Sept 29.7 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
21 Sept 32.6 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
22 Sept 34.1 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 Sept 35.6 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Sept after 30.2 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.6 mm High 25
25 Sept after 29.3 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 21
26 Sept after 32.9 °C 34 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
27 Sept after 35.6 °C 32 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
28 Sept after 36.6 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Sept after 38.0 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
30 Sept after 38.1 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Oct after 34.4 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Oct after 36.3 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Oct after 33.2 °C 46 % 41 km/h 2.0 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Sept 2016
After · 30 Sept 2016

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 · 188Every 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 Puerto Suárez fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 September 2016 and 23 September 2016: 9 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 6,916 hectares (69.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Puerto Suárez (6,897 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.
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.