Skip to content
worldfires
BO · Bolivia · →

San Joaquín fire, 12 August 2016 San Joaquín

Out · last detection 2 Sept 2016, 06:03 UTC

The fire started on 12 August 2016 in San Joaquín, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 27,782 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 32th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 902 with a page). Number 6 in Bolivia in 2016, of 187.

Burnt area
27,782ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
12 Aug 2016 – 2 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
12 Aug
2016
Heat detections
1,112
in a single hotspot: 316 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
19.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Aug2 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

121415161718192022232425262728293112

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
58km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone 30 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 25.1 mm on 3 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. San Joaquín 6,808 inhabitants where it started
    28,020 ha
    3.2 %

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)
7 Aug 35.1 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Aug 34.1 °C 43 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
9 Aug 27.5 °C 57 % 40 km/h 6.8 mm Low 6
10 Aug 27.1 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 17
11 Aug 28.8 °C 48 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 19
12 Aug 32.2 °C 44 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
13 Aug 34.0 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
14 Aug 34.6 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Aug 34.8 °C 43 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Aug 34.8 °C 44 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Aug 35.4 °C 42 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Aug 34.3 °C 43 % 36 km/h 4.6 mm Low 9
19 Aug 33.0 °C 51 % 37 km/h 4.0 mm Low 6
20 Aug 32.2 °C 55 % 52 km/h 1.5 mm Low 9
21 Aug 26.4 °C 39 % 58 km/h 27.9 mm Very low 5
22 Aug 25.3 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
23 Aug 27.3 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
24 Aug 30.4 °C 31 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
25 Aug 33.5 °C 38 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
26 Aug 34.5 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
27 Aug 34.5 °C 41 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
28 Aug 33.5 °C 47 % 50 km/h 7.4 mm Very low 5
29 Aug 32.1 °C 54 % 49 km/h 11.9 mm Very low 2
30 Aug 19.5 °C 68 % 44 km/h 6.8 mm Very low 0
31 Aug 27.1 °C 58 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
1 Sept 31.1 °C 52 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
2 Sept 29.5 °C 63 % 29 km/h 6.7 mm Very low 1
3 Sept after 23.5 °C 83 % 46 km/h 25.1 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Aug 2016
After · 9 Sept 2016

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 · 1,112Every 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 Bolivia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the San Joaquín fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 August 2016 and 2 September 2016: 22 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 27,782 hectares (277.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered San Joaquín (28,020 ha, 3.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class High.
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
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 119 · 110.

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.