Ucayali fire, August 2023 Ucayali, Coronel Portillo
The fire started on 8 August 2023 in Ucayali, Peru, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,351 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 3th largest in Loreto since 2016 (of 21 with a page). The largest in Peru in 2023, of 13.
- Burnt area
- 3,351ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 8 Aug 2023 – 20 Aug 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- provinces
- Started on
- 8 Aug
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 270
- in a single hotspot: 134 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.2GW
- 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 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 4 Sept.
This area had burned before
72% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 582 ha in 2019, 3,432 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,402 ha that had burned before.
- 1,274 ha Ucayali fire, September 2022 1,349 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,171 ha Ucayali fire, October 2022 1,372 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 889 ha Coronel Portillo fire, September 2022 3,365 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 582 ha Coronel Portillo fire, September 2019 1,155 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 99 ha Coronel Portillo fire, September 2022 1,020 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
1,752 ha reached on 1 Aug0.1 %
-
Coronel Portillo 135,161 inhabitants1,622 ha reached on 1 Aug0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Aug | 35.6 °C | 38 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 2 Aug | 36.0 °C | 34 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 3 Aug | 36.1 °C | 32 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 4 Aug | 34.4 °C | 48 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 5 Aug | 35.0 °C | 47 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 6 Aug | 35.1 °C | 47 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 7 Aug | 37.1 °C | 37 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 8 Aug | 36.2 °C | 44 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 9 Aug | 35.8 °C | 44 % | 21 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 25 |
| 10 Aug | 36.3 °C | 46 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 11 Aug | 37.2 °C | 40 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 12 Aug | 32.3 °C | 59 % | 24 km/h | 8.5 mm | Very low 3 |
| 13 Aug | 27.6 °C | 78 % | 24 km/h | 23.1 mm | Very low 0 |
| 14 Aug | 28.1 °C | 71 % | 23 km/h | 7.6 mm | Very low 0 |
| 15 Aug | 32.4 °C | 53 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very low 1 |
| 16 Aug | 34.8 °C | 43 % | 15 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 17 Aug | 36.1 °C | 38 % | 19 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 18 Aug | 36.5 °C | 38 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 19 Aug | 37.0 °C | 38 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 20 Aug | 37.9 °C | 32 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 21 Aug after | 37.1 °C | 39 % | 19 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 22 Aug after | 37.4 °C | 43 % | 19 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 23 Aug after | 35.7 °C | 48 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 24 Aug after | 37.2 °C | 37 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 25 Aug after | 37.4 °C | 40 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 26 Aug after | 38.0 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 27 Aug after | 37.3 °C | 31 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 28 Aug after | 31.7 °C | 56 % | 18 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 29 Aug after | 36.1 °C | 41 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 30 Aug after | 37.2 °C | 40 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 31 Aug after | 37.1 °C | 41 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 1 Sept after | 37.0 °C | 38 % | 26 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 23 |
| 2 Sept after | 37.0 °C | 40 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 3 Sept after | 38.4 °C | 37 % | 24 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 4 Sept after | 30.8 °C | 60 % | 23 km/h | 2.1 mm | Low 6 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 20 August 2023 the air beside the fire reached 41 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 23: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 270Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,365 haCoronel Portillo18 September 2022 · 12 days · 3 km away
- 14,316 haCoronel Portillo7 September 2024 · 20 days · 4 km away
- 2,614 haUcayali27 August 2026 · 18 days · 5 km away
- 2,346 haUcayali7 September 2024 · 9 days · 9 km away
- 2,443 haCoronel Portillo11 September 2024 · 5 days · 12 km away
- 7,054 haCoronel Portillo4 September 2024 · 23 days · 17 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ucayali fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 August 2023 and 20 August 2023: 13 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 3,351 hectares (33.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ucayali (1,752 ha, 0.1 %); Coronel Portillo (1,622 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 33 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 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
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.