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BO · Bolivia · –

Santa Ana fire, October 2022 Santa Ana

Out · last detection 13 Nov 2022, 05:32 UTC

The fire started on 27 October 2022 in Santa Ana, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,290 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 754th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 859 with a page). Number 197 in Bolivia in 2022, of 222.

Burnt area
3,290ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
19days
27 Oct 2022 – 14 Nov 2022
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
27 Oct
2022
Heat detections
143
in a single hotspot: 89 MW
Danger at start
5
Very low · FWI index
Average daily power
82MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Oct14 Nov
13 Nov 2022

How it evolved, day by day

27 Oct 2022 · 5 MW · 1 29 Oct 2022 · 65 MW · 6 30 Oct 2022 · 76 MW · 10 31 Oct 2022 · 2 MW · 2 2 Nov 2022 · 268 MW · 5 3 Nov 2022 · 145 MW · 18 4 Nov 2022 · 74 MW · 14 5 Nov 2022 · 149 MW · 15 6 Nov 2022 · 63 MW · 11 7 Nov 2022 · 83 MW · 6 8 Nov 2022 · 175 MW · 23 9 Nov 2022 · 5 MW · 3 10 Nov 2022 · 50 MW · 8 11 Nov 2022 · 79 MW · 10 12 Nov 2022 · 59 MW · 8 13 Nov 2022 · 8 MW · 3
27 Oct 2 Nov 6 Nov 10 Nov

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
63km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.0 mm on 15 Nov.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.1% of the area of London (33 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Santa Ana 18,088 inhabitants where it started
    3,302 ha reached on 27 Oct
    0.2 %

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 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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.

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)
27 Oct 33.3 °C 65 % 37 km/h 26.4 mm Very low 5
28 Oct 32.0 °C 57 % 21 km/h 6.6 mm Very low 0
29 Oct 32.5 °C 56 % 39 km/h 0.4 mm Very low 2
30 Oct 33.3 °C 58 % 52 km/h 0.5 mm Low 8
31 Oct 30.6 °C 37 % 63 km/h 25.1 mm Very low 1
1 Nov 23.3 °C 34 % 55 km/h 0.1 mm Very low 1
2 Nov 27.2 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
3 Nov 28.6 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
4 Nov 30.9 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
5 Nov 32.8 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
6 Nov 34.2 °C 31 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
7 Nov 35.3 °C 32 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
8 Nov 36.5 °C 35 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
9 Nov 36.7 °C 38 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 17
10 Nov 32.1 °C 55 % 49 km/h 2.3 mm Moderate 19
11 Nov 34.9 °C 48 % 48 km/h 2.3 mm Low 6
12 Nov 34.2 °C 45 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
13 Nov 33.9 °C 51 % 58 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 17
14 Nov 33.6 °C 59 % 42 km/h 7.3 mm Very low 4
15 Nov after 32.9 °C 59 % 29 km/h 9.0 mm Very low 1

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 5.0, a minimum humidity of 65% and 1 day without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 26.

FWI at the start 5.0
Minimum humidity 65 %
Days without rain 1
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Huacaraje fire, October 2020
3,277 ha 11 days FWI 3.1 Min. humidity 63 % 192 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 13.0 mm on 27 Oct.

What happened to them

12 days
median duration
4,342 ha
median area
19 %
went past 10,000 ha
4.9 mm
rain at the end (median; 25 of 26 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (3,290 ha against a median of 4,342 ha) and lasted 19 days, against 12 days.

In 1 of 26, 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 4.9 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

9.0 mmfirst rain
15 Novthe day after it ended
63km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 14 Nov, and on 15 Nov 9.0 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 25 of 26, with a median of 4.9 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.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Oct 2022
After · 21 Nov 2022

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 · Copernicus

On 8 November 2022 the air beside the fire reached 66 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 40: 2.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak66 µg/m³
Days over the guideline7 days
PM1095 µg/m³
Optical depth1.28
25 Oct29 Oct2 Nov6 Nov10 Nov
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 · 143Every 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 Santa Ana fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 October 2022 to 14 November 2022 (19 days). The perimeter dates it from 27 October 2022 to 9 November 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,290 hectares (32.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Santa Ana (3,302 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 19, class Moderate.
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: 26. Their median duration was 12 days and their median area 4,342 ha; 19 % went past 10,000 ha. In 1 of 26, 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 4.9 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 9 November 2022 → 14 November 2022.

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
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.

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 27 October 2022 to 9 November 2022. 143 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 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.