Vera fire, 29 December 2021 Vera, 9 de Julio
The fire started on 29 December 2021 in Vera, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 25,494 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Santa Fe since 2016 (of 252 with a page). Number 2 in Argentina in 2021, of 217.
- Burnt area
- 25,494ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 20days
- 29 Dec 2021 – 17 Jan 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- departments
- Started on
- 29 Dec
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 1,056
- in a single hotspot: 109 MW
- Danger at start
- 13
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 11.4GW
- 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 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 14.3 mm on 18 Jan.
This area had burned before
62% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 897 ha in 2016, 4,472 ha in 2018, 2,156 ha in 2019, 13,771 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 15,680 ha that had burned before.
- 2,026 ha Vera fire, July 2020 2,368 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,774 ha Vera fire, August 2020 2,132 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,675 ha Vera fire, April 2018 1,862 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,285 ha Vera fire, August 2020 2,033 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,158 ha Vera fire, July 2020 2,902 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,037 ha Vera fire, May 2020 3,950 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 876 ha Vera fire, July 2020 1,623 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 791 ha Vera fire, April 2018 2,396 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Vera where it started25,343 ha reached on 29 Dec1.2 %
-
87 ha reached on 31 Dec0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Dec | 32.1 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 24 Dec | 31.9 °C | 34 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 25 Dec | 34.5 °C | 32 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 26 Dec | 33.9 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 27 Dec | 34.4 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 28 Dec | 36.3 °C | 22 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 29 Dec | 36.6 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 30 Dec | 38.4 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 31 Dec | 38.4 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 1 Jan | 40.9 °C | 21 % | 59 km/h | 3.0 mm | High 30 |
| 2 Jan | 37.1 °C | 38 % | 50 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 3 Jan | 36.1 °C | 36 % | 34 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 4 Jan | 35.6 °C | 36 % | 46 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 5 Jan | 32.8 °C | 23 % | 51 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 27 |
| 6 Jan | 32.0 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 7 Jan | 33.9 °C | 28 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 8 Jan | 34.0 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 9 Jan | 35.8 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 10 Jan | 36.2 °C | 27 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 11 Jan | 37.7 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 12 Jan | 39.3 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 13 Jan | 40.6 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 14 Jan | 39.3 °C | 21 % | 53 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 45 |
| 15 Jan | 40.1 °C | 24 % | 64 km/h | 0.1 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 16 Jan | 41.4 °C | 24 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 17 Jan | 39.6 °C | 29 % | 50 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 41 |
| 18 Jan after | 32.8 °C | 43 % | 60 km/h | 14.3 mm | Low 6 |
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 · 1,056Every 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 29 December 2021 and 17 January 2022: 20 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 25,494 hectares (254.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Vera (25,343 ha, 1.2 %); 9 de Julio (87 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.4 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.