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Pumanque fire, March 2019 Pumanque, Paredones

Out · last detection 23 Mar 2019, 06:33 UTC

The fire started on 21 March 2019 in Pumanque, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,999 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 18th largest in Región del Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins since 2016 (of 28 with a page). Number 12 in Chile in 2019, of 44.

Burnt area
1,999ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
21 Mar 2019 – 23 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
21 Mar
2019
Heat detections
90
in a single hotspot: 398 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
5.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Mar 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Mar23 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

212223

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
36km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.1 mm on 31 Mar.

This area had burned before

29% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 358 ha in 2016, 230 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Pumanque where it started
    1,275 ha reached on 21 Mar
    2.9 %
  2. Paredones
    729 ha reached on 21 Mar
    1.3 %

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)
21 Mar 26.5 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Mar 28.1 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Mar 27.5 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Mar after 24.9 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Mar after 23.1 °C 39 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 Mar after 24.5 °C 44 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
27 Mar after 20.4 °C 48 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
28 Mar after 21.7 °C 50 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
29 Mar after 21.3 °C 55 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
30 Mar after 19.1 °C 63 % 36 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 13
31 Mar after 21.1 °C 59 % 23 km/h 3.1 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Mar 2019
After · 30 Mar 2019

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 · 90Every 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 21 March 2019 and 23 March 2019: 3 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 1,999 hectares (20.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pumanque (1,275 ha, 2.9 %); Paredones (729 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.1 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 36 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 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.