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Utracán fire, 15 December 2016 Utracán

Out · last detection 16 Dec 2016, 19:01 UTC

The fire started on 15 December 2016 in Utracán, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,457 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 86th largest in La Pampa since 2016 (of 190 with a page). Number 68 in Argentina in 2016, of 255.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.8 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
3,457ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
15 Dec 2016 – 17 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
15 Dec
2016
Heat detections
124
in a single hotspot: 15 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
577MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Dec17 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1516

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
54km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 25 Dec.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Utracán where it started
    3,470 ha reached on 15 Dec
    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)
15 Dec 37.2 °C 16 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Dec 37.2 °C 19 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Dec 32.3 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.7 mm High 32
18 Dec after 30.5 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
19 Dec after 34.6 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Dec after 39.4 °C 12 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Dec after 27.8 °C 11 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Dec after 29.8 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Dec after 32.6 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Dec after 35.6 °C 16 % 54 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 47
25 Dec after 31.9 °C 12 % 54 km/h 1.5 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Dec 2016
After · 24 Dec 2016

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 · 124Every 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 Argentina ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Utracán fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 December 2016 and 17 December 2016: 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 3,457 hectares (34.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Utracán (3,470 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Argentina (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 · 100

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 · 100.

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.