Vera fire, 19 August 2021 Vera
The fire started on 19 August 2021 in Vera, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,259 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 103th largest in Santa Fe since 2016 (of 252 with a page). Number 103 in Argentina in 2021, of 217.
The power measured by the satellite is low (23.1 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
- 2,259ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 1day
- 19 Aug 2021 – 19 Aug 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- departments
- Started on
- 19 Aug
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 51
- in a single hotspot: 23 MW
- Danger at start
- 60
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 230MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.1 mm on 25 Aug.
This area had burned before
32% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 76 ha in 2017, 654 ha in 2020.
- 439 ha Vera fire, June 2020 3,884 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 208 ha Vera fire, June 2020 7,023 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7 ha Vera fire, August 2020 4,790 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Vera where it started2,253 ha reached on 13 Aug0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Aug | 36.2 °C | 24 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 20 Aug after | 20.7 °C | 47 % | 56 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Aug after | 27.2 °C | 40 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 22 Aug after | 29.6 °C | 40 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 23 Aug after | 21.4 °C | 37 % | 49 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Aug after | 21.0 °C | 46 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 25 Aug after | 14.2 °C | 75 % | 32 km/h | 6.1 mm | Very low 0 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 51Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Vera fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 August 2021 and 19 August 2021: 1 day 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 2,259 hectares (22.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Vera (2,253 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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
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.