Roboré fire, 17 August 2021 Charagua, Roboré, San José
The fire started on 17 August 2021 in Roboré, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 162,737 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.
It is the 9th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 834 with a page). Number 2 in Bolivia in 2021, of 155.
- Burnt area
- 162,737ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 17 Aug 2021 – 24 Aug 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 17 Aug
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 6,028
- in a single hotspot: 666 MW
- Danger at start
- 55
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 206.7GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 27 Aug.
This area had burned before
29% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,650 ha in 2016, 435 ha in 2017, 133 ha in 2018, 49,131 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 47,577 ha that had burned before.
- 10,028 ha Charagua fire, September 2019 49,382 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,579 ha Roboré fire, August 2019 73,444 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,060 ha Charagua fire, September 2019 6,291 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,933 ha Charagua fire, September 2019 7,970 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,831 ha Charagua fire, September 2019 3,325 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,521 ha Charagua fire, August 2019 35,929 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,449 ha Charagua fire, September 2019 3,551 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 622 ha Charagua fire, August 2019 3,208 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Charagua 101,733 inhabitants135,814 ha1.9 %
-
21,097 ha2.9 %
-
San José 60,359 inhabitants6,380 ha0.3 %
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 Aug | 36.7 °C | 21 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 18 Aug | 36.4 °C | 18 % | 59 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 19 Aug | 36.8 °C | 15 % | 59 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 20 Aug | 36.7 °C | 16 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 21 Aug | 36.6 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 22 Aug | 36.8 °C | 22 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 23 Aug | 35.9 °C | 29 % | 76 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 24 Aug | 35.8 °C | 28 % | 65 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 25 Aug after | 32.2 °C | 34 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 26 Aug after | 23.5 °C | 44 % | 52 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 29 |
| 27 Aug after | 23.1 °C | 59 % | 39 km/h | 2.4 mm | Low 8 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 6,028Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Roboré fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 August 2021 and 24 August 2021: 8 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 162,737 hectares (1,627.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Charagua (135,814 ha, 1.9 %); Roboré (21,097 ha, 2.9 %); San José (6,380 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 76 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, class Extreme.
- 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
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.