Silca fire, 21 April 2020 Silca, Salamá
The fire started on 21 April 2020 in Silca, Honduras, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,134 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 172th largest in Olancho since 2016 (of 227 with a page). Number 147 in Honduras in 2020, of 174.
The power measured by the satellite is low (25.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 1,134ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 21 Apr 2020 – 30 Apr 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 21 Apr
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 64
- in a single hotspot: 26 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 323MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 41 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 6 May.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Silca where it started1,104 ha reached on 21 Apr4.3 %
-
36 ha0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Apr | 33.0 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 22 Apr | 31.7 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Apr | 32.1 °C | 21 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 24 Apr | 33.5 °C | 27 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 25 Apr | 31.5 °C | 30 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 26 Apr | 31.4 °C | 31 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 27 Apr | 31.6 °C | 25 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 28 Apr | 28.2 °C | 33 % | 44 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 36 |
| 29 Apr | 29.9 °C | 27 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 30 Apr | 32.2 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 1 May after | 29.1 °C | 39 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 2 May after | 30.1 °C | 34 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 3 May after | 30.5 °C | 32 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 4 May after | 31.3 °C | 28 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 5 May after | 29.1 °C | 35 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 6 May after | 31.5 °C | 38 % | 36 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 20 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 64Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 7,357 haJuticalpa11 April 2020 · 18 days · 16 km away
- 51,924 haManto25 March 2020 · 38 days · 23 km away
- 9,313 haJuticalpa2 April 2020 · 27 days · 23 km away
- 15,714 haGuayapeMarch 2020 · 29 days · 26 km away
- 7,059 haLa Unión2 May 2026 · 20 days · 31 km away
- 7,597 haGuarizama7 April 2020 · 20 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Silca fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 April 2020 and 30 April 2020: 10 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 1,134 hectares (11.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Silca (1,104 ha, 4.3 %); Salamá (36 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Honduras (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: 911
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
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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.