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Riberalta fire, 16 September 2024 Riberalta

Out · last detection 25 Sept 2024, 05:43 UTC

The fire started on 16 September 2024 in Riberalta, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,356 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 773th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 902 with a page). Number 257 in Bolivia in 2024, of 295.

Burnt area
3,356ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
16 Sept 2024 – 25 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
16 Sept
2024
Heat detections
114
in a single hotspot: 51 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Energy released
597MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Sept 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Sept25 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

16171819202122232425

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
34km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.6 mm on 26 Sept.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 35 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 28 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Riberalta 110,302 inhabitants where it started
    3,383 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)
16 Sept 32.3 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
17 Sept 34.6 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Sept 36.8 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
19 Sept 37.8 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
20 Sept 37.8 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Sept 38.2 °C 32 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
22 Sept 38.9 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Sept 38.0 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
24 Sept 38.9 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
25 Sept 38.8 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
26 Sept after 36.5 °C 40 % 28 km/h 2.6 mm Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Sept 2024
After · 2 Oct 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 19 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 153 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 123: 8.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak153 µg/m³
Days over the guideline15 days
PM10219 µg/m³
Optical depth4.42
141516171819202122232425262728
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 · 114Every 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 Riberalta fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 September 2024 and 25 September 2024: 10 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 3,356 hectares (33.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Riberalta (3,383 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.