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Utracán fire, December 2017 Utracán

Out · last detection 27 Dec 2017, 18:11 UTC

The fire started on 26 December 2017 in Utracán, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,164 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 69th largest in La Pampa since 2016 (of 190 with a page). Number 60 in Argentina in 2017, of 256.

Burnt area
4,164ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
26 Dec 2017 – 27 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
26 Dec
2017
Heat detections
128
in a single hotspot: 120 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Dec27 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

2627

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
45km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.1 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
    4,166 ha reached on 26 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)
26 Dec 30.5 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
27 Dec 34.3 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Dec after 36.2 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Dec after 38.1 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Dec after 29.6 °C 22 % 52 km/h 0.3 mm High 38
31 Dec after 20.7 °C 38 % 39 km/h 3.1 mm Low 5

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Dec 2017
After · 3 Jan 2018

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 · 128Every 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 26 December 2017 and 27 December 2017: 2 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 4,164 hectares (41.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Utracán (4,166 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, class 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.