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Tahuamanu fire, 15 September 2017 Tahuamanu

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2017, 05:44 UTC

The fire started on 15 September 2017 in Tahuamanu, Peru, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,303 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 2th largest in Madre de Dios since 2016 (of 67 with a page). The largest in Peru in 2017, of 14.

Burnt area
6,303ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
15 Sept 2017 – 22 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
provinces
Started on
15 Sept
2017
Heat detections
257
in a single hotspot: 245 MW
Danger at start
3
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
5.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Sept22 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

15171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
40km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 12.5 mm on 23 Sept.

This area had burned before

45% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,375 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,811 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Tahuamanu 4,648 inhabitants where it started
    6,351 ha reached on 15 Sept
    0.3 %

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)
15 Sept 32.1 °C 50 % 28 km/h 2.9 mm Very low 3
16 Sept 27.9 °C 64 % 38 km/h 13.9 mm Very low 0
17 Sept 28.9 °C 45 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
18 Sept 32.5 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
19 Sept 35.1 °C 35 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
20 Sept 36.5 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
21 Sept 35.5 °C 41 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
22 Sept 31.5 °C 56 % 31 km/h 3.8 mm Very low 2
23 Sept after 29.9 °C 63 % 30 km/h 12.5 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Sept 2017
After · 29 Sept 2017

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 · 257Every 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 Peru ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Tahuamanu fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 September 2017 and 22 September 2017: 8 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 6,303 hectares (63.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tahuamanu (6,351 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Peru (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: 116 · 105

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
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 116 · 105.

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.