Burned area
satellite only16,562ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 26 Aug 2024 – 21 Sept 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
BO · Bolivia · –
San José fire, 26 August 2024 San José, San Rafael
Out · last detection 22 Sept 2024, 17:32 UTC
The fire started on 26 August 2024 in San José, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,562 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 127th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 784 with a page). Number 47 in Bolivia in 2024, of 295.
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 only27days
26 Aug 2024 to 21 Sept 2024: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 22 Sept 2024, 17:32 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 only26 Aug 2024
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 26 Aug 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only2,806
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 298 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 26 Aug 2024 – 21 Sept 2024
+− 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 only6,909MW
Total radiative power on 8 September 2024; hotspots that day: 548.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 8 Sept 2024
+− 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
model28.9FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 16.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 26 Aug 2024, 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
model38.0°C · 32% RH
High of 38.0 °C and minimum humidity of 32% on 20 September 2024; gusts of 58 km/h on 11 September 2024.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 26 Aug 2024 – 21 Sept 2024
- 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 weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
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
- 16,562 ha
- Dates
- 26 Aug 2024 – 21 Sept 2024
- Name
- San José
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/san-jose-2024-08-4?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-jose-2024-08-4.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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-08-26 | 10 | 62 | 25.3 | 11.5 | 26 | 11.8 | 30.6 | 0 | 28.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-27 | 6 | 20 | 30.9 | 12.8 | 25 | 9.9 | 25.6 | 0 | 31.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-28 | 3 | 35 | 33.8 | 16.4 | 27 | 12.3 | 29.9 | 0 | 33 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-29 | 43 | 1,900 | 36.9 | 19.1 | 23 | 14.5 | 37.4 | 0 | 39.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-30 | 32 | 147 | 34.7 | 20.4 | 30 | 16.7 | 40.3 | 0 | 40.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-31 | 57 | 352 | 34 | 21.8 | 28 | 14.8 | 28.4 | 0 | 35.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-01 | 33 | 176 | 28.3 | 18.7 | 35 | 16.2 | 39.6 | 0 | 39.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-02 | 43 | 310 | 34.8 | 17 | 27 | 12.1 | 33.1 | 0 | 36 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-03 | 217 | 4,559 | 36.2 | 18.7 | 27 | 19.8 | 48.6 | 0 | 53.8 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-09-04 | 133 | 485 | 34.8 | 22.4 | 33 | 15.9 | 42.8 | 0 | 47.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-05 | 135 | 391 | 28.4 | 19.1 | 37 | 21.4 | 46.8 | 0 | 44.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-06 | 87 | 596 | 33 | 16.6 | 30 | 13.1 | 32 | 0 | 36.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-07 | 179 | 6,139 | 36.4 | 20.1 | 18 | 19.3 | 48.2 | 0 | 65.2 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-09-08 | 548 | 6,909 | 37.6 | 20.1 | 20 | 13.3 | 38.5 | 0 | 52.8 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-09-09 | 298 | 1,840 | 37.9 | 20.9 | 25 | 13.2 | 36 | 0 | 48.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-10 | 362 | 2,651 | 37.3 | 22.4 | 26 | 14.9 | 39.2 | 0 | 48.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-11 | 401 | 2,591 | 36.8 | 23.5 | 29 | 24.3 | 58.3 | 0 | 71.5 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2024-09-12 | 123 | 453 | 30.8 | 23 | 48 | 13.6 | 36 | 0.4 | 30.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-13 | 7 | 20 | 35.4 | 22.4 | 38 | 18.6 | 45.7 | 0.2 | 40.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-14 | 6 | 7 | 26.9 | 19.7 | 62 | 15.2 | 39.6 | 9.1 | 14.2 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-09-15 | 0 | 0 | 23.8 | 16.6 | 55 | 12.5 | 30.2 | 2.4 | 2.2 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2024-09-16 | 0 | 0 | 27.5 | 16.7 | 49 | 11.9 | 28.4 | 0 | 8.1 | bajo | 1 |
| 2024-09-17 | 3 | 11 | 33 | 18 | 42 | 11.1 | 32 | 0 | 18.5 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-09-18 | 2 | 5 | 35.9 | 22 | 35 | 12.8 | 36.7 | 0.2 | 28.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-19 | 0 | 0 | 36.9 | 24.3 | 32 | 22.5 | 55.8 | 0 | 45.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-20 | 7 | 48 | 38 | 26 | 32 | 19 | 54.7 | 0 | 44.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-21 | 45 | 283 | 36.6 | 24.6 | 30 | 14.6 | 38.9 | 0 | 39.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-22 | 26 | 73 | 38.1 | 25.1 | 27 | 18.6 | 46.1 | 0 | 49.2 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2024-09-23 | 0 | 0 | 37.6 | 25.7 | 33 | 18.7 | 47.2 | 0 | 50.9 | extremo | 0 |
| 2024-09-24 | 0 | 0 | 37.2 | 26.2 | 32 | 16.8 | 48.6 | 0 | 47.1 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2024-09-25 | 0 | 0 | 38.2 | 26.2 | 33 | 16.6 | 49.3 | 0 | 47.9 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2024-09-26 | 0 | 0 | 33.6 | 20.4 | 46 | 16.9 | 45.7 | 16.8 | 19.8 | moderado | 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
- 16,562ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 27days
- 26 Aug 2024 – 21 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 26 Aug
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 2,806
- in a single hotspot: 298 MW
- Danger at start
- 29
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1.2GW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
26 Aug21 Sept
22 Sept 2024
How it evolved, day by day
26 Aug
31 Aug
8 Sept
17 Sept
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
38°high
58km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity
It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 16.8 mm on 26 Sept.
This area had burned before
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,827 ha in 2017, 562 ha in 2018, 12,692 ha in 2019, 767 ha in 2020, 2,363 ha in 2021, 9,600 ha in 2022, 9,061 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,987 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
-
13,725 ha reached on 26 Aug0.7 %
-
San Rafael 8,842 inhabitants2,898 ha reached on 26 Aug0.3 %
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 2025Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Aug | 25.3 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 27 Aug | 30.9 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 28 Aug | 33.8 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 29 Aug | 36.9 °C | 23 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 30 Aug | 34.7 °C | 30 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 31 Aug | 34.0 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 1 Sept | 28.3 °C | 35 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 2 Sept | 34.8 °C | 27 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 3 Sept | 36.2 °C | 27 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 4 Sept | 34.8 °C | 33 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 5 Sept | 28.4 °C | 37 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 6 Sept | 33.0 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 7 Sept | 36.4 °C | 18 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 8 Sept | 37.6 °C | 20 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 9 Sept | 37.9 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 10 Sept | 37.3 °C | 26 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 11 Sept | 36.8 °C | 29 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 12 Sept | 30.8 °C | 48 % | 36 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 30 |
| 13 Sept | 35.4 °C | 38 % | 46 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 40 |
| 14 Sept | 26.9 °C | 62 % | 40 km/h | 9.1 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 15 Sept | 23.8 °C | 55 % | 30 km/h | 2.4 mm | Very low 2 |
| 16 Sept | 27.5 °C | 49 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 17 Sept | 33.0 °C | 42 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 18 Sept | 35.9 °C | 35 % | 37 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 28 |
| 19 Sept | 36.9 °C | 32 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 20 Sept | 38.0 °C | 32 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 21 Sept | 36.6 °C | 30 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 22 Sept after | 38.1 °C | 27 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 23 Sept after | 37.6 °C | 33 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 24 Sept after | 37.2 °C | 32 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 25 Sept after | 38.2 °C | 33 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 26 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 46 % | 46 km/h | 16.8 mm | Moderate 20 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 28.9, a minimum humidity of 26% and 16 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 24.
FWI at the start
28.9
Minimum humidity
26 %
Days without rain
16
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · San José fire, 26 August 2024
16,562 ha
27 days
FWI 28.9
Min. humidity 26 %
Roboré fire, August 2019
14,700 ha
21 days
FWI 29.7
Min. humidity 26 %
149 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.1 mm on 27 Aug.
Roboré fire, September 2022
8,566 ha
17 days
FWI 27.5
Min. humidity 26 %
166 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.4 mm on 22 Sept.
Pailón fire, September 2021
6,236 ha
2 days
FWI 31.0
Min. humidity 26 %
210 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.3 mm on 4 Oct.
San José fire, September 2021
4,560 ha
13 days
FWI 29.1
Min. humidity 30 %
88 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 15.4 mm on 15 Oct.
San Ignacio fire, September 2020
5,714 ha
14 days
FWI 31.1
Min. humidity 25 %
205 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 14 days
- median duration
- 5,634 ha
- median area
- 29 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- 3.5 mm
- rain at the end (median; 19 of 24 had it)
It was 2.9 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 27 days, against 14 days.
Only 3 of its 24 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 5 of 24, 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 3.5 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
16.8 mmfirst rain
26 Sept5 days after it ended
58km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 21 Sept, and on 26 Sept 16.8 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 19 of 24, with a median of 3.5 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 · 19 Aug 2024
After · 28 Sept 2024
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 10 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 689 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 480: 32 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak689 µg/m³
Days over the guideline24 days
PM10987 µg/m³
Optical depth6.31
WHO 15
24 Aug29 Aug3 Sept8 Sept13 Sept
Good
Fair
Moderate
Poor
Very poor
Extremely poor
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 2,806Every 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
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the San José fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 August 2024 to 21 September 2024 (27 days). The perimeter dates it from 26 August 2024 to 14 September 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 16,562 hectares (165.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: San José (13,725 ha, 0.7 %); San Rafael (2,898 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 72, class Very 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.
- 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: 24. Their median duration was 14 days and their median area 5,634 ha; 29 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 3 of its 24 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 5 of 24, 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 3.5 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: 119 · 110 · 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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 26 August 2024 to 14 September 2024. 2,806 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 2025, 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 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.