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Reyes fire, 23 September 2024 Reyes, Puerto Menor de Rurrenabaque

Out · last detection 26 Oct 2024, 18:35 UTC

The fire started on 23 September 2024 in Reyes, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 34 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 19,222 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 56th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 902 with a page). Number 40 in Bolivia in 2024, of 295.

Burnt area
19,222ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
34days
23 Sept 2024 – 26 Oct 2024
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
23 Sept
2024
Heat detections
1,453
in a single hotspot: 247 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
15.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Oct 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Sept26 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

232425272829301234567891011121314151617181920212223242526

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
57km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.2 mm on 30 Oct.

This area had burned before

80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,841 ha in 2016, 441 ha in 2017, 2,886 ha in 2018, 8,282 ha in 2019, 656 ha in 2020, 1,341 ha in 2021, 1,676 ha in 2022, 14,300 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 15,367 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Reyes 11,478 inhabitants where it started
    18,590 ha
    1.6 %
  2. Puerto Menor de Rurrenabaque 21,240 inhabitants
    831 ha
    0.3 %

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)
17 Sept 35.0 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
18 Sept 37.4 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
19 Sept 38.4 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
20 Sept 39.2 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
21 Sept 39.0 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
22 Sept 41.4 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Sept 40.7 °C 28 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Sept 40.8 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Sept 39.7 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
26 Sept 38.5 °C 38 % 36 km/h 8.4 mm Low 9
27 Sept 29.3 °C 41 % 38 km/h 3.6 mm Low 6
28 Sept 36.0 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
29 Sept 39.3 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
30 Sept 38.2 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
1 Oct 39.0 °C 33 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
2 Oct 40.6 °C 31 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Oct 34.0 °C 40 % 48 km/h 0.6 mm High 28
4 Oct 37.3 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Oct 40.7 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Oct 41.5 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Oct 41.0 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
8 Oct 39.2 °C 35 % 50 km/h 0.4 mm High 36
9 Oct 33.3 °C 50 % 38 km/h 4.8 mm Low 6
10 Oct 37.3 °C 37 % 57 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
11 Oct 39.5 °C 29 % 56 km/h 1.6 mm High 30
12 Oct 37.7 °C 36 % 53 km/h 0.6 mm High 27
13 Oct 40.7 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
14 Oct 37.2 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
15 Oct 39.5 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
16 Oct 39.8 °C 29 % 38 km/h 3.5 mm Moderate 19
17 Oct 35.8 °C 40 % 39 km/h 6.3 mm Low 6
18 Oct 37.4 °C 39 % 32 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 14
19 Oct 29.5 °C 60 % 32 km/h 12.1 mm Very low 1
20 Oct 34.8 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
21 Oct 36.7 °C 44 % 44 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 14
22 Oct 29.3 °C 73 % 31 km/h 11.5 mm Very low 0
23 Oct 34.3 °C 47 % 49 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 5
24 Oct 36.1 °C 41 % 53 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 14
25 Oct 37.2 °C 44 % 56 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 12
26 Oct 33.2 °C 60 % 49 km/h 31.5 mm Very low 1
27 Oct after 29.5 °C 46 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 4
28 Oct after 33.9 °C 46 % 30 km/h 0.4 mm Low 8
29 Oct after 36.2 °C 43 % 21 km/h 0.5 mm Low 9
30 Oct after 37.4 °C 39 % 27 km/h 2.2 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Sept 2024
After · 2 Nov 2024

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 17 October 2024 the air beside the fire reached 161 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 102: 6.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak161 µg/m³
Days over the guideline39 days
PM10230 µg/m³
Optical depth4.22
151617181920212223242526272829301234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 1,453Every 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 Reyes fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 September 2024 and 26 October 2024: 34 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 19,222 hectares (192.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Reyes (18,590 ha, 1.6 %); Puerto Menor de Rurrenabaque (831 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.5 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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.