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Río Cauto fire, February 2020 Río Cauto, Yara

Out · last detection 12 Feb 2020, 06:06 UTC

The fire started on 10 February 2020 in Río Cauto, Cuba, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,122 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 15th largest in Granma since 2016 (of 21 with a page). Number 41 in Cuba in 2020, of 53.

Burnt area
1,122ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
10 Feb 2020 – 12 Feb 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
10 Feb
2020
Heat detections
11
in a single hotspot: 58 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
165MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Feb 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Feb12 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

101112

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
44km/h · peak gust
40%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 16 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Río Cauto 44,945 inhabitants where it started
    944 ha reached on 10 Feb
    0.6 %
  2. Yara 52,797 inhabitants
    184 ha reached on 10 Feb
    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)
10 Feb 31.5 °C 47 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
11 Feb 33.2 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
12 Feb 33.5 °C 41 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
13 Feb after 33.3 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
14 Feb after 32.9 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
15 Feb after 32.0 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Feb after 32.1 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Feb after 33.5 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
18 Feb after 33.0 °C 42 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Feb after 33.4 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 Feb after 33.1 °C 37 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Feb after 31.6 °C 49 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
22 Feb after 31.3 °C 50 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm High 25

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Feb 2020
After · 19 Feb 2020

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 · 11Every 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 Cuba ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Río Cauto fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 February 2020 and 12 February 2020: 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 1,122 hectares (11.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Río Cauto (944 ha, 0.6 %); Yara (184 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cuba (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: 105

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 105.

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 ADM2 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.