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Vertientes fire, 18 March 2021 Vertientes, Santa Cruz del Sur

Out · last detection 26 Mar 2021, 18:08 UTC

The fire started on 18 March 2021 in Vertientes, Cuba, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,334 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in Camagüey since 2016 (of 63 with a page). Number 5 in Cuba in 2021, of 38.

Burnt area
2,334ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
18 Mar 2021 – 27 Mar 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
18 Mar
2021
Heat detections
82
in a single hotspot: 63 MW
Danger at start
23
High · FWI index
Energy released
995MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Mar 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Mar27 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

1820212223242526

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
43km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 2 Apr.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Vertientes where it started
    2,174 ha reached on 18 Mar
    1.1 %
  2. Santa Cruz del Sur
    168 ha reached on 25 Mar
    0.2 %

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 Mar 31.4 °C 47 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
19 Mar 31.1 °C 50 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
20 Mar 32.0 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 Mar 31.1 °C 45 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
22 Mar 30.0 °C 53 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 23
23 Mar 31.1 °C 48 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
24 Mar 31.7 °C 50 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
25 Mar 32.2 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
26 Mar 33.8 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Mar 33.6 °C 40 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Mar after 32.7 °C 41 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Mar after 34.0 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Mar after 33.0 °C 42 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Mar after 33.0 °C 40 % 39 km/h 0.3 mm High 36
1 Apr after 31.5 °C 47 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
2 Apr after 31.6 °C 49 % 44 km/h 1.3 mm High 24

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Mar 2021
After · 3 Apr 2021

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 · 82Every 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 Cuba ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Vertientes fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 March 2021 and 27 March 2021: 10 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 2,334 hectares (23.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Vertientes (2,174 ha, 1.1 %); Santa Cruz del Sur (168 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 43 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 Cuba (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: 105

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 105.

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 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.