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Valledupar fire, 18 February 2016 Valledupar

Out · last detection 24 Feb 2016, 18:25 UTC

The fire started on 18 February 2016 in Valledupar, Colombia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,557 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 55th largest in Cesar since 2016 (of 60 with a page). Number 153 in Colombia in 2016, of 160.

The power measured by the satellite is low (22.1 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
1,557ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
18 Feb 2016 – 24 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
18 Feb
2016
Heat detections
72
in a single hotspot: 22 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Energy released
507MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Feb24 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

18192021222324

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
41km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Valledupar where it started
    1,566 ha reached on 18 Feb
    0.4 %

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)
18 Feb 37.6 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
19 Feb 37.2 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Feb 36.8 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Feb 36.9 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.9 mm High 26
22 Feb 37.5 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Feb 38.7 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.5 mm High 30
24 Feb 39.1 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.7 mm High 29
25 Feb after 36.3 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.5 mm High 28
26 Feb after 35.7 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Feb after 39.4 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Feb after 37.2 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Feb after 37.6 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Mar after 36.9 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Mar after 39.0 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Mar after 37.4 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Mar after 38.2 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Mar after 37.4 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Feb 2016
After · 2 Mar 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 · 72Every 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 Colombia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Valledupar fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 February 2016 and 24 February 2016: 7 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 1,557 hectares (15.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Valledupar (1,566 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.1 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Colombia (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: 123 · 119

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 123 · 119.

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 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.