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San José fire, 24 July 2016 San José

Out · last detection 28 Jul 2016, 18:10 UTC

The fire started on 24 July 2016 in San José, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,114 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 430th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 834 with a page). Number 84 in Bolivia in 2016, of 187.

Burnt area
5,114ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
24 Jul 2016 – 27 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
24 Jul
2016
Heat detections
194
in a single hotspot: 240 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
6.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jul27 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

2425262728

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
56km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 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. San José 60,359 inhabitants where it started
    5,150 ha
    0.3 %

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)
24 Jul 32.0 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Jul 33.1 °C 30 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Jul 30.6 °C 41 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Jul 26.0 °C 44 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Jul after 29.3 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
29 Jul after 31.9 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Jul after 33.4 °C 27 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Jul after 34.5 °C 28 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Aug after 32.7 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Aug after 30.3 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
3 Aug after 33.1 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Aug after 33.9 °C 29 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Aug after 34.4 °C 26 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Aug after 35.2 °C 27 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Jul 2016
After · 3 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 · 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 24 July 2016 and 27 July 2016: 4 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 5,114 hectares (51.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered San José (5,150 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very 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.