Skip to content
worldfires
AR · Argentina · →

Vera fire, 9 October 2020 Vera, Mayor Luis J. Fontana

Out · last detection 13 Oct 2020, 17:29 UTC

The fire started on 9 October 2020 in Vera, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,594 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 73th largest in Santa Fe since 2016 (of 252 with a page). Number 257 in Argentina in 2020, of 671.

Burnt area
2,594ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
9 Oct 2020 – 13 Oct 2020
Municipalities hit
2
departments
Started on
9 Oct
2020
Heat detections
87
in a single hotspot: 58 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
603MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Oct 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Oct13 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

910111213

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
41km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 28.2 mm on 14 Oct.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Vera where it started
    2,524 ha reached on 9 Oct
    0.1 %
  2. Mayor Luis J. Fontana
    55 ha
    0.0 %

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)
9 Oct 32.3 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Oct 33.8 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Oct 33.0 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Oct 31.4 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Oct 31.8 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
14 Oct after 22.9 °C 34 % 40 km/h 28.2 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Oct 2020
After · 20 Oct 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 · 87Every 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 Vera fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 October 2020 and 13 October 2020: 5 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 2,594 hectares (25.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Vera (2,524 ha, 0.1 %); Mayor Luis J. Fontana (55 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.