Sipacate fire, December 2025 Sipacate, La Gomera
The fire started on 23 December 2025 in Sipacate, Guatemala, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,239 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 13th largest in Escuintla since 2016 (of 17 with a page). Number 5 in Guatemala in 2025, of 10.
- Burnt area
- 1,239ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 23days
- 23 Dec 2025 – 14 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 23 Dec
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 32
- in a single hotspot: 31 MW
- Danger at start
- 8
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 232MW
- 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 4 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
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Dec | 30.1 °C | 66 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 8 |
| 24 Dec | 29.9 °C | 66 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 7 |
| 25 Dec | 29.6 °C | 68 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 26 Dec | 29.6 °C | 65 % | 24 km/h | 1.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 27 Dec | 29.8 °C | 62 % | 22 km/h | 0.4 mm | Low 6 |
| 28 Dec | 29.3 °C | 64 % | 23 km/h | 0.9 mm | Very low 5 |
| 29 Dec | 29.4 °C | 66 % | 20 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 6 |
| 30 Dec | 29.5 °C | 62 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 31 Dec | 30.1 °C | 61 % | 29 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 9 |
| 1 Jan | 28.9 °C | 58 % | 26 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 9 |
| 2 Jan | 28.9 °C | 66 % | 21 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 8 |
| 3 Jan | 28.6 °C | 66 % | 19 km/h | 1.1 mm | Very low 4 |
| 4 Jan | 28.7 °C | 63 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 5 Jan | 28.6 °C | 65 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 6 Jan | 29.0 °C | 58 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 7 Jan | 29.0 °C | 48 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 8 Jan | 29.7 °C | 49 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 9 Jan | 29.9 °C | 51 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 10 Jan | 29.7 °C | 55 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 11 Jan | 29.5 °C | 60 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 12 Jan | 28.6 °C | 68 % | 33 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 13 Jan | 28.8 °C | 61 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 14 Jan | 28.9 °C | 58 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 15 Jan after | 28.8 °C | 61 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 16 Jan after | 29.0 °C | 57 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 17 Jan after | 29.5 °C | 63 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 18 Jan after | 30.3 °C | 55 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 19 Jan after | 29.9 °C | 63 % | 36 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 20 Jan after | 29.2 °C | 66 % | 33 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 21 Jan after | 28.6 °C | 71 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 22 Jan after | 29.4 °C | 61 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 23 Jan after | 29.5 °C | 65 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 24 Jan after | 29.4 °C | 65 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 9 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 49 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 28: 1.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 32Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sipacate fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 December 2025 and 14 January 2026: 23 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 1,239 hectares (12.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sipacate (1,202 ha, 4.4 %); La Gomera (44 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.1 °C, humidity dropped to 48 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 13, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guatemala (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: 122 · 123 · 1566
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 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.