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PY · Paraguay · –

Villa Oliva fire, July 2020 Villa Oliva, Quiindy, Nueva Italia

Out · last detection 11 Aug 2020, 17:10 UTC

The fire started on 29 July 2020 in Villa Oliva, Paraguay, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,867 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Ñeembucú since 2016 (of 60 with a page). Number 12 in Paraguay in 2020, of 422.

Burnt area
20,867ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
29 Jul 2020 – 11 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
4
districts
Started on
29 Jul
2020
Heat detections
1,068
in a single hotspot: 199 MW
Danger at start
3
Very low · FWI index
Average daily power
1.4GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Jul11 Aug
11 Aug 2020

How it evolved, day by day

29 Jul 2020 · 30 MW · 6 30 Jul 2020 · 96 MW · 3 1 Aug 2020 · 2,315 MW · 66 2 Aug 2020 · 4,095 MW · 327 3 Aug 2020 · 1,412 MW · 97 4 Aug 2020 · 2,860 MW · 139 5 Aug 2020 · 1,874 MW · 115 6 Aug 2020 · 676 MW · 55 7 Aug 2020 · 165 MW · 19 8 Aug 2020 · 336 MW · 28 9 Aug 2020 · 1,100 MW · 50 10 Aug 2020 · 1,088 MW · 69 11 Aug 2020 · 1,931 MW · 94
29 Jul 2 Aug 5 Aug 8 Aug 11 Aug

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

33°high
56km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 15.9 mm on 12 Aug.

This area had burned before

29% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 807 ha in 2016, 379 ha in 2017, 1,933 ha in 2018, 3,590 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,151 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 13% of the area of London (209 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Villa Oliva where it started
    18,297 ha reached on 29 Jul
    11 %
  2. 2,815 ha reached on 29 Jul
    4.2 %
  3. 204 ha reached on 2 Aug
    0.6 %
  4. 9 ha
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
29 Jul 15.0 °C 46 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
30 Jul 20.2 °C 45 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
31 Jul 27.4 °C 52 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
1 Aug 31.0 °C 43 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
2 Aug 31.4 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
3 Aug 30.3 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
4 Aug 31.3 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
5 Aug 31.4 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
6 Aug 31.9 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
7 Aug 31.8 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
8 Aug 31.9 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
9 Aug 32.0 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
10 Aug 33.0 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Aug 22.4 °C 45 % 56 km/h 2.6 mm High 34
12 Aug after 12.5 °C 83 % 38 km/h 15.9 mm Very low 0

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 2.9, a minimum humidity of 46% and rain the day before. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 17.

FWI at the start 2.9
Minimum humidity 46 %
Days without rain 0
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Benjamín Aceval fire, September 2020
2,600 ha 5 days FWI 2.8 Min. humidity 46 % 202 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 8.0 mm on 17 Sept.

What happened to them

5 days
median duration
1,960 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
5.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 16 of 17 had it)

It was 10.6 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 14 days, against 5 days.

None of its 17 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 1 of 17, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.6 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

15.9 mmfirst rain
12 Augthe day after it ended
56km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 11 Aug, and on 12 Aug 15.9 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 16 of 17, with a median of 5.6 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Jul 2020
After · 18 Aug 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 · 1,068Every 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 Paraguay

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Villa Oliva fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 July 2020 and 11 August 2020: 14 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 20,867 hectares (208.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Villa Oliva (18,297 ha, 11 %); Quiindy (2,815 ha, 4.2 %); Nueva Italia (204 ha, 0.6 %); Caapucu (9 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 56 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 Paraguay (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 17. Their median duration was 5 days and their median area 1,960 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. None of its 17 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 1 of 17, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.6 mm.

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: 132 · 911 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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 132 · 911.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 1,068 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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 (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.