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Roboré fire, 1 August 2021 Roboré, El Carmen Rivero Tórrez, Charagua

Out · last detection 9 Aug 2021, 17:07 UTC

The fire started on 1 August 2021 in Roboré, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,210 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 177th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 834 with a page). Number 32 in Bolivia in 2021, of 155.

Burnt area
12,210ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
1 Aug 2021 – 9 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
1 Aug
2021
Heat detections
524
in a single hotspot: 411 MW
Danger at start
38
High · FWI index
Energy released
27.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Aug 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Aug9 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

12356789

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
45km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 9,543 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Roboré 18,763 inhabitants where it started
    9,445 ha
    1.3 %
  2. El Carmen Rivero Tórrez 8,816 inhabitants
    2,730 ha
    0.2 %
  3. Charagua 101,733 inhabitants
    126 ha
    0.0 %

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)
1 Aug 27.3 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
2 Aug 28.4 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Aug 29.2 °C 35 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Aug 28.9 °C 29 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
5 Aug 30.7 °C 27 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
6 Aug 34.9 °C 22 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Aug 36.0 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Aug 36.2 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 Aug 36.6 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Aug after 26.4 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Aug after 21.6 °C 49 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
12 Aug after 24.4 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
13 Aug after 26.7 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
14 Aug after 30.2 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Aug after 34.1 °C 19 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Aug after 37.0 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Aug after 38.4 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Aug after 38.9 °C 19 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Aug after 38.2 °C 14 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Jul 2021
After · 16 Aug 2021

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 · 524Every 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 Roboré fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 August 2021 and 9 August 2021: 9 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 12,210 hectares (122.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Roboré (9,445 ha, 1.3 %); El Carmen Rivero Tórrez (2,730 ha, 0.2 %); Charagua (126 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, class Very 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.