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GT · Guatemala · –

Sipacate fire, February 2026 Sipacate, La Gomera, Nueva Concepción

Out · last detection 6 Apr 2026, 19:11 UTC

The fire started on 25 February 2026 in Sipacate, Guatemala, and satellites saw it burning for 48 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,185 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Number 4 in Guatemala in 2026, of 20.

GWIS near-real-time perimeter, from the layer that changed in October 2025: this fire is not compared with fires from earlier years, because since then the GWIS layer gives more and larger perimeters.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Sipacate · 2021Sipacate · 2025La Democracia · 2024

Burnt area
2,185ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
48days
25 Feb 2026 – 13 Apr 2026
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
25 Feb
2026
Heat detections
86
in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Average daily power
28MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Feb13 Apr
6 Apr 2026

How it evolved, day by day

25 Feb 2026 · 10 MW · 2 27 Feb 2026 · 31 MW · 3 2 Mar 2026 · 42 MW · 7 3 Mar 2026 · 21 MW · 2 5 Mar 2026 · 43 MW · 4 8 Mar 2026 · 24 MW · 3 9 Mar 2026 · 48 MW · 8 10 Mar 2026 · 32 MW · 3 11 Mar 2026 · 41 MW · 3 14 Mar 2026 · 40 MW · 5 15 Mar 2026 · 40 MW · 5 16 Mar 2026 · 89 MW · 7 18 Mar 2026 · 33 MW · 4 19 Mar 2026 · 10 MW · 2 20 Mar 2026 · 13 MW · 2 21 Mar 2026 · 30 MW · 3 22 Mar 2026 · 7 MW · 2 23 Mar 2026 · 38 MW · 4 24 Mar 2026 · 22 MW · 2 25 Mar 2026 · 29 MW · 1 28 Mar 2026 · 10 MW · 1 29 Mar 2026 · 42 MW · 4 30 Mar 2026 · 22 MW · 2 31 Mar 2026 · 33 MW · 3 1 Apr 2026 · 7 MW · 2 5 Apr 2026 · 12 MW · 1 6 Apr 2026 · 4 MW · 1
25 Feb 9 Mar 16 Mar 24 Mar 1 Apr

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
40km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 16 Apr.

This area had burned before

4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 86 ha in 2021.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.4% of the area of London (22 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. Sipacate where it started
    1,245 ha reached on 25 Feb
    4.6 %
  2. La Gomera 58,272 inhabitants
    914 ha reached on 25 Feb
    1.8 %
  3. Nueva Concepción
    39 ha
    0.1 %

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.

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)
25 Feb 35.0 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Feb 36.0 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Feb 36.5 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Feb 36.3 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Mar 36.4 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Mar 36.7 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Mar 35.7 °C 38 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Mar 35.6 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Mar 35.7 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 42
6 Mar 37.4 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm High 38
7 Mar 36.3 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Mar 35.3 °C 42 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
9 Mar 34.6 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 40
10 Mar 36.5 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Mar 36.4 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
12 Mar 35.1 °C 46 % 32 km/h 0.7 mm High 37
13 Mar 33.5 °C 53 % 26 km/h 0.9 mm High 22
14 Mar 33.9 °C 56 % 30 km/h 0.8 mm High 24
15 Mar 35.8 °C 41 % 30 km/h 1.1 mm High 28
16 Mar 36.0 °C 43 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
17 Mar 35.6 °C 42 % 26 km/h 0.3 mm High 31
18 Mar 34.4 °C 49 % 29 km/h 6.2 mm High 31
19 Mar 34.5 °C 44 % 25 km/h 0.7 mm Low 10
20 Mar 33.7 °C 47 % 28 km/h 2.4 mm Moderate 17
21 Mar 33.4 °C 43 % 23 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 16
22 Mar 34.6 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Mar 33.8 °C 47 % 27 km/h 0.6 mm High 26
24 Mar 34.1 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Mar 35.6 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
26 Mar 35.3 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
27 Mar 34.8 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
28 Mar 36.5 °C 38 % 30 km/h 5.2 mm High 36
29 Mar 34.7 °C 45 % 31 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 11
30 Mar 34.6 °C 44 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
31 Mar 35.1 °C 44 % 25 km/h 4.3 mm High 24
1 Apr 36.2 °C 41 % 30 km/h 1.7 mm Low 7
2 Apr 35.2 °C 44 % 30 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 14
3 Apr 34.6 °C 46 % 28 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 21
4 Apr 36.1 °C 43 % 28 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 16
5 Apr 34.7 °C 50 % 30 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 21
6 Apr 36.3 °C 47 % 26 km/h 4.8 mm Low 8
7 Apr 33.2 °C 57 % 19 km/h 12.4 mm Very low 2
8 Apr 36.2 °C 45 % 22 km/h 0.1 mm Very low 4
9 Apr 37.0 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 15
10 Apr 37.3 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 19
11 Apr 36.4 °C 41 % 35 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 20
12 Apr 37.2 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
13 Apr 36.8 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.4 mm High 25
14 Apr after 35.6 °C 43 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
15 Apr after 35.9 °C 43 % 28 km/h 0.4 mm High 27
16 Apr after 35.6 °C 44 % 32 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 20

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Feb 2026
After · 20 Apr 2026

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 6 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 60 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 35: 2.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak60 µg/m³
Days over the guideline46 days
PM1061 µg/m³
Optical depth0.73
2 Mar12 Mar22 Mar1 Apr11 Apr
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 · 86Every 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 Guatemala

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Sipacate fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 25 February 2026 to 13 April 2026 (48 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 March 2026 to 13 April 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,185 hectares (21.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sipacate (1,245 ha, 4.6 %); La Gomera (914 ha, 1.8 %); Nueva Concepción (39 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, class Very high.
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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 5 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 4 March 2026 → 25 February 2026.
  2. Name: La Gomera → Sipacate.
  3. Start date: 25 February 2026 → 4 March 2026.
  4. Name: Sipacate → La Gomera.
  5. Start date: 4 March 2026 → 25 February 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
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 122 · 123 · 1566.

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 4 March 2026 to 13 April 2026. 86 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.

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 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.