Sulaco fire, March 2019 Sulaco, Yorito
The fire started on 22 March 2019 in Sulaco, Honduras, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,231 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 20th largest in Yoro since 2016 (of 36 with a page). Number 59 in Honduras in 2019, of 93.
- Burnt area
- 1,231ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 22 Mar 2019 – 31 Mar 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 22 Mar
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 75
- in a single hotspot: 53 MW
- Danger at start
- 23
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 359MW
- 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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 2 Apr.
This area had burned before
65% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 799 ha in 2018.
What happened to each town
-
Sulaco where it started1,220 ha reached on 16 Mar5.2 %
-
18 ha reached on 17 Mar0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Mar | 27.6 °C | 39 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 23 Mar | 27.8 °C | 33 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 24 Mar | 28.9 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 25 Mar | 31.0 °C | 31 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 26 Mar | 29.0 °C | 34 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 27 Mar | 28.4 °C | 30 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 28 Mar | 26.3 °C | 41 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 29 Mar | 28.3 °C | 36 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 30 Mar | 31.0 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 31 Mar | 32.2 °C | 29 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 1 Apr after | 32.1 °C | 29 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 2 Apr after | 32.3 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 1.0 mm | High 24 |
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 · 75Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,019 haEl PorvenirMarch 2018 · 21 days · 23 km away
- 5,093 haSan IgnacioMay 2024 · 7 days · 29 km away
- 63,428 haOrica26 March 2020 · 36 days · 31 km away
- 6,368 haSan IgnacioMarch 2018 · 21 days · 35 km away
- 4,704 haSan IgnacioMarch 2023 · 14 days · 35 km away
- 4,510 haOrica31 March 2020 · 22 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sulaco fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 March 2019 and 31 March 2019: 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 1,231 hectares (12.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sulaco (1,220 ha, 5.2 %); Yorito (18 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class 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.