Burned area
satellite only3,738ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 31 Jul 2020 – 11 Aug 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
PY · Paraguay · –
San Carlos fire, July 2020 Sgto. Jose Felix Lopez, San Carlos
Out · last detection 11 Aug 2020, 17:11 UTC
The fire started on 31 July 2020 in San Carlos, Paraguay, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,738 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 47th largest in Concepción since 2016 (of 191 with a page). Number 97 in Paraguay in 2020, of 422.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only12days
31 Jul 2020 to 11 Aug 2020: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 11 Aug 2020, 17:11 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only31 Jul 2020
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 31 Jul 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only102
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 45 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 31 Jul 2020 – 11 Aug 2020
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only166MW
Total radiative power on 8 August 2020; hotspots that day: 30.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 8 Aug 2020
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model24.9FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 17.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 31 Jul 2020, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model34.0°C · 20% RH
High of 34.0 °C and minimum humidity of 20% on 10 August 2020; gusts of 45 km/h on 11 August 2020.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 31 Jul 2020 – 11 Aug 2020
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 3,738 ha
- Dates
- 31 Jul 2020 – 11 Aug 2020
- Name
- San Carlos
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/san-carlos-2020-07?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire san-carlos-2020-07.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-07-31 | 3 | 20 | 31.2 | 14.6 | 34 | 13.5 | 31 | 0 | 24.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-01 | 5 | 40 | 31.5 | 18.6 | 31 | 16.8 | 35.3 | 0 | 29.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-02 | 1 | 4 | 32 | 19 | 27 | 19.1 | 40.3 | 0 | 34.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-03 | 6 | 88 | 32.1 | 18.2 | 25 | 15.6 | 35.6 | 0 | 33.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-04 | 6 | 43 | 31.6 | 18.9 | 24 | 20.1 | 43.6 | 0 | 38.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-05 | 6 | 35 | 31.7 | 17.4 | 20 | 20.3 | 45 | 0 | 42 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-06 | 11 | 26 | 32.4 | 16.8 | 21 | 17.8 | 40 | 0 | 40.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-07 | 7 | 146 | 32.4 | 16.6 | 21 | 17.7 | 39.6 | 0 | 40.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-08 | 30 | 166 | 32.3 | 17.2 | 20 | 14.3 | 32.4 | 0 | 38 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-09 | 12 | 31 | 32.7 | 16.8 | 19 | 15.3 | 36 | 0 | 40.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-10 | 12 | 67 | 34 | 18.5 | 20 | 18.1 | 41.8 | 0 | 43.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-11 | 3 | 10 | 33.2 | 21 | 22 | 22.2 | 45.4 | 0 | 48.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-12 | 0 | 0 | 20.7 | 11.4 | 49 | 17.8 | 43.6 | 6.2 | 4.9 | muy_bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 3,738ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 31 Jul 2020 – 11 Aug 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 31 Jul
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 102
- in a single hotspot: 45 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 56MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
31 Jul11 Aug
11 Aug 2020
How it evolved, day by day
31 Jul
3 Aug
8 Aug
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
45km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity
It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.2 mm on 12 Aug.
This area had burned before
67% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 900 ha in 2016, 1,461 ha in 2017, 1,477 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,519 ha that had burned before.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
3,258 ha reached on 1 Aug1.4 %
-
San Carlos where it started501 ha reached on 31 Jul0.3 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Jul | 31.2 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 1 Aug | 31.5 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 2 Aug | 32.0 °C | 27 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 3 Aug | 32.1 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 4 Aug | 31.6 °C | 24 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 5 Aug | 31.7 °C | 20 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 6 Aug | 32.4 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 7 Aug | 32.4 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 8 Aug | 32.3 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 9 Aug | 32.7 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 10 Aug | 34.0 °C | 20 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 11 Aug | 33.2 °C | 22 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 12 Aug after | 20.7 °C | 49 % | 44 km/h | 6.2 mm | Very low 5 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 24.9, a minimum humidity of 34% and 17 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 21.
FWI at the start
24.9
Minimum humidity
34 %
Days without rain
17
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · San Carlos fire, July 2020
3,738 ha
12 days
FWI 24.9
Min. humidity 34 %
Yvy Ya´U fire, June 2024
5,051 ha
11 days
FWI 24.5
Min. humidity 33 %
109 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.5 mm on 25 Jun.
Villa Hayes fire, July 2016
1,757 ha
2 days
FWI 24.0
Min. humidity 35 %
97 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 10.7 mm on 7 Aug.
San Pedro Del Ykuamandiyu fire, September 2024
1,969 ha
8 days
FWI 24.3
Min. humidity 35 %
102 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.9 mm on 13 Sept.
Puerto Pinasco fire, October 2023
4,035 ha
5 days
FWI 24.3
Min. humidity 32 %
111 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.6 mm on 7 Oct.
San Lazaro fire, August 2018
2,710 ha
3 days
FWI 24.9
Min. humidity 33 %
68 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 18.8 mm on 2 Sept.
What happened to them
- 7 days
- median duration
- 2,735 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 2.2 mm
- rain at the end (median; 20 of 21 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (3,738 ha against a median of 2,735 ha) and lasted 12 days, against 7 days.
In 1 of 21, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.2 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
6.2 mmfirst rain
12 Augthe day after it ended
45km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 11 Aug, and on 12 Aug 6.2 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 20 of 21, with a median of 2.2 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 24 Jul 2020
After · 18 Aug 2020
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 102Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 89,174 haSan Carlos14 August 2021 · 12 days · 4 km away
- 8,753 haSan Carlos15 August 2024 · 8 days · 8 km away
- 8,491 haSgto. Jose Felix Lopez8 August 2017 · 5 days · 21 km away
- 13,439 haConcepcion17 August 2021 · 9 days · 25 km away
- 18,830 haConcepcion3 September 2024 · 10 days · 33 km away
- 26,879 haSan Carlos7 August 2021 · 19 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the San Carlos fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 July 2020 and 11 August 2020: 12 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 3,738 hectares (37.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sgto. Jose Felix Lopez (3,258 ha, 1.4 %); San Carlos (501 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Paraguay (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 21. Their median duration was 7 days and their median area 2,735 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 1 of 21, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.2 mm.
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: 132 · 911 · Emergency number and official warnings
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 102 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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 (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.