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Ucayali fire, September 2022 Ucayali, Coronel Portillo

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2022, 05:56 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2022 in Ucayali, Peru, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,349 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 17th largest in Loreto since 2016 (of 21 with a page). Number 29 in Peru in 2022, of 61.

The power measured by the satellite is low (24.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,349ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
12 Sept 2022 – 14 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
2
provinces
Started on
12 Sept
2022
Heat detections
57
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
12
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
84MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

14 Sept 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept14 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

12 Sept 2022 · 23 MW · 5 13 Sept 2022 · 220 MW · 35 14 Sept 2022 · 8 MW · 5
12 Sept 13 Sept 14 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
32km/h · peak gust
39%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 65.8 mm on 15 Sept.

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 95 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Ucayali 7,742 inhabitants where it started
    996 ha reached on 6 Sept
    0.0 %
  2. Coronel Portillo 135,161 inhabitants
    362 ha reached on 13 Sept
    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)
12 Sept 36.2 °C 39 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
13 Sept 37.5 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 14
14 Sept 33.1 °C 62 % 32 km/h 3.5 mm Very low 2
15 Sept after 25.7 °C 87 % 36 km/h 65.8 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Sept 2022
After · 21 Sept 2022

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 14 September 2022 the air beside the fire reached 128 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 61: 4.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak128 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM10184 µg/m³
Optical depth0.80
1011121314151617
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 · 57Every 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 Ucayali fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 September 2022 and 14 September 2022: 3 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 1,349 hectares (13.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ucayali (996 ha, 0.0 %); Coronel Portillo (362 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, 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.