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San José fire, 12 June 2016 San José, Pailón

Out · last detection 31 Jul 2016, 17:14 UTC

The fire started on 12 June 2016 in San José, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 49 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 33,474 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the 68th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 834 with a page). Number 5 in Bolivia in 2016, of 187.

Burnt area
33,474ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
49days
12 Jun 2016 – 30 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
12 Jun
2016
Heat detections
5,194
in a single hotspot: 226 MW
Danger at start
12
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
45.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Jun30 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

1213141516171819202122232425262728293012345689101112131415171819202122232425262728293031

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
59km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.0 mm on 9 Aug.

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 José 60,359 inhabitants where it started
    33,593 ha
    1.8 %
  2. Pailón 54,495 inhabitants
    25 ha
    0.0 %

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)
12 Jun 20.1 °C 45 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
13 Jun 23.7 °C 43 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
14 Jun 27.5 °C 50 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
15 Jun 29.5 °C 50 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
16 Jun 28.0 °C 59 % 24 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 16
17 Jun 23.7 °C 60 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 15
18 Jun 21.3 °C 59 % 28 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 11
19 Jun 22.2 °C 55 % 28 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 12
20 Jun 22.4 °C 55 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
21 Jun 21.8 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
22 Jun 23.4 °C 40 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
23 Jun 27.2 °C 45 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
24 Jun 30.4 °C 43 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
25 Jun 29.1 °C 54 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 18
26 Jun 22.7 °C 60 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
27 Jun 22.6 °C 53 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
28 Jun 23.9 °C 55 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
29 Jun 29.0 °C 47 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
30 Jun 30.7 °C 41 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Jul 30.4 °C 40 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
2 Jul 31.4 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
3 Jul 31.8 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Jul 31.8 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Jul 31.9 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Jul 18.5 °C 60 % 39 km/h 1.5 mm Low 10
7 Jul 23.1 °C 60 % 17 km/h 0.5 mm Low 10
8 Jul 31.1 °C 41 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
9 Jul 32.2 °C 37 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Jul 33.0 °C 36 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
11 Jul 33.5 °C 36 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Jul 32.4 °C 43 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Jul 32.6 °C 42 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Jul 33.7 °C 37 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Jul 31.4 °C 50 % 59 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
16 Jul 24.3 °C 40 % 43 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 20
17 Jul 22.7 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
18 Jul 25.7 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Jul 23.0 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Jul 25.5 °C 32 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 Jul 27.0 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Jul 29.1 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Jul 32.6 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Jul 33.1 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Jul 33.7 °C 23 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
26 Jul 30.2 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Jul 25.4 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Jul 28.4 °C 38 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
29 Jul 32.5 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Jul 33.9 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Jul after 34.7 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Aug after 33.5 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Aug after 29.4 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Aug after 33.4 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Aug after 34.3 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Aug after 35.0 °C 21 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Aug after 36.0 °C 23 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 Aug after 31.4 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Aug after 30.1 °C 48 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Aug after 22.0 °C 61 % 41 km/h 7.0 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Jun 2016
After · 6 Aug 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 · 5,194Every 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 José fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 June 2016 and 30 July 2016: 49 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 33,474 hectares (334.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: San José (33,593 ha, 1.8 %); Pailón (25 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, class Extreme.
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.