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Sabá fire, 6 April 2020 Sabá, Gualaco

Out · last detection 15 Apr 2020, 19:16 UTC

The fire started on 6 April 2020 in Sabá, Honduras, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,879 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Colón since 2016 (of 24 with a page). Number 39 in Honduras in 2020, of 174.

Burnt area
2,879ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
6 Apr 2020 – 14 Apr 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
6 Apr
2020
Heat detections
92
in a single hotspot: 109 MW
Danger at start
12
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Apr 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Apr14 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

6789101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
40km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Sabá where it started
    1,688 ha reached on 2 Apr
    4.5 %
  2. Gualaco
    1,207 ha reached on 1 Apr
    0.5 %

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 Apr 28.1 °C 48 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 12
2 Apr 28.2 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
3 Apr 28.7 °C 45 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
4 Apr 28.6 °C 44 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 13
5 Apr 28.9 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
6 Apr 28.8 °C 45 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
7 Apr 29.4 °C 47 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
8 Apr 29.2 °C 43 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
9 Apr 29.3 °C 44 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
10 Apr 30.3 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
11 Apr 29.3 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
12 Apr 32.1 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
13 Apr 32.8 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
14 Apr 31.8 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
15 Apr after 30.2 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
16 Apr after 29.2 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
17 Apr after 30.3 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
18 Apr after 30.3 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
19 Apr after 31.3 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
20 Apr after 31.6 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
21 Apr after 29.4 °C 45 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
22 Apr after 29.7 °C 42 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
23 Apr after 31.8 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
24 Apr after 32.3 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 27

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Mar 2020
After · 21 Apr 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 · 92Every 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 Honduras ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Sabá fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 April 2020 and 14 April 2020: 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 2,879 hectares (28.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sabá (1,688 ha, 4.5 %); Gualaco (1,207 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Honduras (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: 911

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 911.

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 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.