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Pumanque fire, December 2016 Pumanque, Paredones

Out · last detection 6 Dec 2016, 18:50 UTC

The fire started on 5 December 2016 in Pumanque, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,834 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 11th largest in Región del Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins since 2016 (of 28 with a page). Number 7 in Chile in 2016, of 28.

Burnt area
2,834ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
5 Dec 2016 – 6 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
5 Dec
2016
Heat detections
168
in a single hotspot: 185 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Dec6 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

56

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

The weather it burned in

25°high
42km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 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. Pumanque where it started
    1,788 ha reached on 5 Dec
    4.0 %
  2. Paredones
    1,053 ha reached on 5 Dec
    1.8 %

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)
5 Dec 24.5 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
6 Dec 25.3 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
7 Dec after 24.7 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
8 Dec after 24.7 °C 43 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
9 Dec after 21.9 °C 52 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
10 Dec after 26.8 °C 37 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
11 Dec after 30.1 °C 37 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
12 Dec after 26.8 °C 35 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
13 Dec after 30.8 °C 13 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
14 Dec after 33.0 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Dec after 27.8 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Dec after 23.9 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 22

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Nov 2016
After · 13 Dec 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 · 168Every 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 Chile ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Pumanque fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 December 2016 and 6 December 2016: 2 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 2,834 hectares (28.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pumanque (1,788 ha, 4.0 %); Paredones (1,053 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 25.3 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Chile (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: 130 (CONAF) · 132

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 130 (CONAF) · 132.

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 (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.