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Tocoa fire, 8 April 2020 Tocoa, Gualaco

Out · last detection 18 Apr 2020, 07:10 UTC

The fire started on 8 April 2020 in Tocoa, Honduras, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,170 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 14th largest in Colón since 2016 (of 24 with a page). Number 142 in Honduras in 2020, of 174.

Burnt area
1,170ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
8 Apr 2020 – 17 Apr 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
8 Apr
2020
Heat detections
83
in a single hotspot: 155 MW
Danger at start
20
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Apr 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Apr17 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

89101112131415161718

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
43km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 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

  1. Tocoa where it started
    1,159 ha reached on 8 Apr
    1.3 %
  2. Gualaco
    17 ha reached on 9 Apr
    0.0 %

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)
8 Apr 32.3 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
9 Apr 32.4 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
10 Apr 33.4 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
11 Apr 32.7 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
12 Apr 33.0 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Apr 34.3 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
14 Apr 33.7 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Apr 32.6 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Apr 32.5 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Apr 31.8 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Apr after 32.3 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Apr after 33.7 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
20 Apr after 34.0 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Apr after 31.8 °C 42 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Apr after 33.3 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 Apr after 33.6 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Apr after 34.3 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Apr after 33.1 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Apr after 32.6 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Apr after 32.7 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Apr 2020
After · 24 Apr 2020

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 · 83Every 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 Honduras ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Tocoa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 April 2020 and 17 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 1,170 hectares (11.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tocoa (1,159 ha, 1.3 %); Gualaco (17 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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
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 911.

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.