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Utracán fire, 20 December 2016 Utracán

Out · last detection 24 Dec 2016, 18:11 UTC

The fire started on 20 December 2016 in Utracán, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,116 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 70th largest in La Pampa since 2016 (of 190 with a page). Number 49 in Argentina in 2016, of 255.

Burnt area
4,116ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
20 Dec 2016 – 23 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
20 Dec
2016
Heat detections
105
in a single hotspot: 163 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Dec23 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

2021222324

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
62km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 31 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
    4,110 ha reached on 20 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)
20 Dec 39.5 °C 12 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Dec 28.6 °C 13 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Dec 30.1 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Dec 33.4 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Dec after 36.1 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.7 mm Very high 42
25 Dec after 32.6 °C 14 % 56 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 46
26 Dec after 27.2 °C 19 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Dec after 32.2 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Dec after 35.7 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Dec after 37.9 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Dec after 37.9 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 46
31 Dec after 33.3 °C 19 % 49 km/h 1.4 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Dec 2016
After · 30 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 · 105Every 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 20 December 2016 and 23 December 2016: 4 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 4,116 hectares (41.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Utracán (4,110 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, class Extreme.
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.