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Sabá fire, 9 April 2020 Sabá, Tocoa

Out · last detection 18 Apr 2020, 18:19 UTC

The fire started on 9 April 2020 in Sabá, Honduras, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,762 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 9th largest in Colón since 2016 (of 24 with a page). Number 83 in Honduras in 2020, of 174.

Burnt area
1,762ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
9 Apr 2020 – 17 Apr 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
9 Apr
2020
Heat detections
89
in a single hotspot: 88 MW
Danger at start
19
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
900MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Apr 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Apr17 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

91011121314151718

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
43km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 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
    1,297 ha reached on 6 Apr
    3.5 %
  2. Tocoa
    475 ha reached on 6 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)
9 Apr 29.9 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
10 Apr 30.9 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
11 Apr 30.2 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
12 Apr 30.5 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
13 Apr 31.8 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
14 Apr 31.2 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
15 Apr 30.1 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Apr 30.0 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Apr 29.3 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Apr after 29.8 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Apr after 31.2 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
20 Apr after 31.5 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Apr after 29.3 °C 41 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
22 Apr after 30.8 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
23 Apr after 31.1 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Apr after 31.8 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Apr after 30.6 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
26 Apr after 30.1 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Apr after 30.2 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Apr 2020
After · 24 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 · 89Every 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 9 April 2020 and 17 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 1,762 hectares (17.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sabá (1,297 ha, 3.5 %); Tocoa (475 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.
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.