San Ignacio fire, March 2022 San Ignacio
The fire started on 23 March 2022 in San Ignacio, Honduras, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,198 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 133th largest in Francisco Morazán since 2016 (of 177 with a page). Number 29 in Honduras in 2022, of 42.
The power measured by the satellite is low (10.3 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 1,198ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 23 Mar 2022 – 25 Mar 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 23 Mar
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 51
- in a single hotspot: 10 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 172MW
- 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 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 29 Mar.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 890 ha in 2017, 642 ha in 2018, 1,115 ha in 2019, 1,174 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,201 ha that had burned before.
- 1,174 ha Orica fire, March 2020 63,428 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 890 ha San Ignacio fire, March 2017 2,300 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 682 ha San Ignacio fire, March 2019 2,980 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 642 ha San Ignacio fire, March 2018 6,368 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 433 ha San Ignacio fire, April 2019 1,516 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
San Ignacio where it started1,205 ha reached on 23 Mar3.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Mar | 34.5 °C | 25 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 24 Mar | 33.4 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 32 |
| 25 Mar | 23.9 °C | 64 % | 41 km/h | 2.4 mm | Low 6 |
| 26 Mar after | 23.3 °C | 61 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 27 Mar after | 24.8 °C | 57 % | 24 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 10 |
| 28 Mar after | 31.5 °C | 29 % | 32 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 22 |
| 29 Mar after | 29.2 °C | 46 % | 37 km/h | 1.6 mm | Moderate 12 |
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 · 51Every 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 San Ignacio fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 March 2022 and 25 March 2022: 3 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 1,198 hectares (12.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered San Ignacio (1,205 ha, 3.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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
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.