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Urubichá fire, September 2020 Urubichá, Concepción

Out · last detection 28 Oct 2020, 17:52 UTC

The fire started on 24 September 2020 in Urubichá, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 35 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 97,033 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 15th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 835 with a page). The largest in Bolivia in 2020, of 211.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Urubichá · 2023Urubichá · 2025Urubichá · 2023Urubichá · 2025

Burnt area
97,033ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
35days
24 Sept 2020 – 28 Oct 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
24 Sept
2020
Heat detections
4,145
in a single hotspot: 362 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Average daily power
957MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Sept28 Oct
28 Oct 2020

How it evolved, day by day

24 Sept 2020 · 16 MW · 4 25 Sept 2020 · 1,276 MW · 34 26 Sept 2020 · 308 MW · 79 27 Sept 2020 · 1,188 MW · 51 28 Sept 2020 · 1,813 MW · 106 29 Sept 2020 · 553 MW · 32 30 Sept 2020 · 1,643 MW · 212 1 Oct 2020 · 2,124 MW · 435 2 Oct 2020 · 1,799 MW · 246 3 Oct 2020 · 230 MW · 33 4 Oct 2020 · 778 MW · 39 5 Oct 2020 · 498 MW · 111 6 Oct 2020 · 37 MW · 6 7 Oct 2020 · 3,524 MW · 427 8 Oct 2020 · 2,432 MW · 163 9 Oct 2020 · 3,588 MW · 248 10 Oct 2020 · 1,602 MW · 274 11 Oct 2020 · 1,132 MW · 430 12 Oct 2020 · 1,012 MW · 249 13 Oct 2020 · 159 MW · 77 14 Oct 2020 · 1,194 MW · 66 15 Oct 2020 · 99 MW · 60 16 Oct 2020 · 94 MW · 8 17 Oct 2020 · 835 MW · 169 18 Oct 2020 · 1,504 MW · 126 19 Oct 2020 · 122 MW · 24 20 Oct 2020 · 34 MW · 3 21 Oct 2020 · 540 MW · 31 22 Oct 2020 · 762 MW · 103 23 Oct 2020 · 1,075 MW · 229 24 Oct 2020 · 337 MW · 30 25 Oct 2020 · 194 MW · 19 26 Oct 2020 · 32 MW · 17 28 Oct 2020 · 17 MW · 4
24 Sept 29 Sept 4 Oct 9 Oct 14 Oct 19 Oct 24 Oct

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
55km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.2 mm on 8 Nov.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 61% of the area of London (970 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Urubichá 6,555 inhabitants where it started
    96,070 ha reached on 24 Sept
    5.8 %
  2. Concepción 93,392 inhabitants
    1,482 ha reached on 9 Oct
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
24 Sept 35.4 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
25 Sept 35.9 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
26 Sept 35.0 °C 41 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Sept 34.9 °C 39 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Sept 32.2 °C 49 % 35 km/h 2.7 mm Low 10
29 Sept 35.4 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
30 Sept 36.8 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Oct 36.6 °C 34 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
2 Oct 36.9 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Oct 36.1 °C 40 % 28 km/h 0.6 mm High 24
4 Oct 37.3 °C 34 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
5 Oct 38.1 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
6 Oct 35.0 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.7 mm High 23
7 Oct 36.5 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
8 Oct 38.8 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
9 Oct 37.3 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Oct 37.2 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Oct 36.6 °C 36 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Oct 35.2 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Oct 34.8 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Oct 36.2 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Oct 33.9 °C 46 % 37 km/h 7.0 mm Low 6
16 Oct 33.3 °C 47 % 27 km/h 1.4 mm Low 11
17 Oct 36.1 °C 37 % 36 km/h 1.2 mm High 22
18 Oct 36.4 °C 38 % 34 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 18
19 Oct 32.2 °C 55 % 49 km/h 9.7 mm Very low 4
20 Oct 33.3 °C 51 % 35 km/h 6.5 mm Very low 3
21 Oct 35.2 °C 41 % 43 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 14
22 Oct 36.5 °C 40 % 39 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 17
23 Oct 35.8 °C 42 % 42 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 17
24 Oct 35.5 °C 45 % 38 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 19
25 Oct 34.2 °C 50 % 53 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 15
26 Oct 33.4 °C 54 % 48 km/h 11.5 mm Very low 2
27 Oct 31.3 °C 64 % 41 km/h 6.2 mm Very low 1
28 Oct 32.7 °C 54 % 52 km/h 0.8 mm Low 5
29 Oct after 29.7 °C 73 % 34 km/h 11.4 mm Very low 0
30 Oct after 28.9 °C 47 % 48 km/h 0.1 mm Very low 3
31 Oct after 32.1 °C 29 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
1 Nov after 34.3 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
2 Nov after 34.6 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
3 Nov after 36.2 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
4 Nov after 36.6 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
5 Nov after 36.8 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
6 Nov after 36.6 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
7 Nov after 37.4 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
8 Nov after 34.6 °C 44 % 28 km/h 3.2 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Sept 2020
After · 4 Nov 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 · 4,145Every 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 Bolivia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Urubichá fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 September 2020 and 28 October 2020: 35 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 97,033 hectares (970.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Urubichá (96,070 ha, 5.8 %); Concepción (1,482 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bolivia (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: 119 · 110 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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 119 · 110.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 4,145 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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 ADM3 (Public Domain). 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.