How long did the Tocoa fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 March 2023 and 7 April 2023: 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 2,045 hectares (20.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tocoa (1,447 ha, 1.6 %); Gualaco (610 ha, 0.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 30.9 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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.

HN · Honduras · 2023-03-29 → 2023-04-07

Tocoa fire, March 2023 Tocoa, Gualaco

Out · last detection 7 Apr 2023, 06:48 UTC

The fire started on 29 March 2023 in Tocoa, Honduras, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,045 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Colón since 2016 (of 24 with a page). Number 32 in Honduras in 2023, of 149.

Burnt area: 2,045ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 10days; 29 Mar 2023 – 7 Apr 2023
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 29 Mar; 2023
Heat detections: 141; in a single hotspot: 154 MW
Danger at start: 20; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 2.1GW; sum of detected power

Play back 7 Apr 2023

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Mar7 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

2930311234567

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

The weather it burned in

31°high

51km/h · peak gust

29%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 18 Apr.

This area had burned before

65% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,335 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

Tocoa where it started

1,447 ha reached on 26 Mar

1.6 %
Gualaco

610 ha reached on 26 Mar

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)
26 Mar	29.4 °C	34 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
27 Mar	30.4 °C	33 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 21
28 Mar	30.8 °C	29 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
29 Mar	29.4 °C	31 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
30 Mar	26.9 °C	46 %	45 km/h	1.1 mm	Moderate 13
31 Mar	28.1 °C	37 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
1 Apr	28.5 °C	40 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
2 Apr	29.3 °C	31 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
3 Apr	30.1 °C	33 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
4 Apr	30.0 °C	31 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
5 Apr	30.2 °C	31 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
6 Apr	30.6 °C	32 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
7 Apr	29.3 °C	32 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
8 Apr after	28.2 °C	39 %	38 km/h	0.9 mm	Moderate 18
9 Apr after	28.8 °C	36 %	47 km/h	0.4 mm	High 25
10 Apr after	26.5 °C	44 %	38 km/h	0.4 mm	High 23
11 Apr after	28.1 °C	38 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
12 Apr after	28.3 °C	37 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
13 Apr after	30.1 °C	33 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
14 Apr after	30.9 °C	33 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
15 Apr after	32.5 °C	29 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
16 Apr after	32.0 °C	29 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
17 Apr after	29.2 °C	36 %	43 km/h	0.4 mm	High 31
18 Apr after	27.8 °C	43 %	34 km/h	1.7 mm	Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 22 Mar 2023

After · 14 Apr 2023

Before After

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 7 April 2023 the air beside the fire reached 57 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak57 µg/m³

Days over the guideline5 days

PM1082 µg/m³

Optical depth0.49

WHO 15

272829303112345678910

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 · 141Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Honduras ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Tocoa fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 March 2023 and 7 April 2023: 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 2,045 hectares (20.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tocoa (1,447 ha, 1.6 %); Gualaco (610 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 30.9 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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

ICF · Instituto de Conservación Forestal ↗
COPECO ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned