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Almas fire, July 2016 Almas, Ponte Alta do Tocantins

Out · last detection 27 Jul 2016, 16:50 UTC

The fire started on 23 July 2016 in Almas, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,607 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 327th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 155 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

Burnt area
7,607ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
23 Jul 2016 – 27 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
23 Jul
2016
Heat detections
260
in a single hotspot: 271 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Jul27 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

2324252627

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
42km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 41 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Almas 6,499 inhabitants where it started
    7,589 ha reached on 23 Jul
    1.9 %
  2. Ponte Alta do Tocantins 7,586 inhabitants
    54 ha reached on 26 Jul
    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)
23 Jul 34.8 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Jul 33.4 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Jul 33.7 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Jul 33.5 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Jul 33.0 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Jul after 33.0 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Jul after 34.1 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Jul after 32.7 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
31 Jul after 32.5 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Aug after 32.8 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Aug after 33.4 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Aug after 34.0 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Aug after 34.1 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Aug after 33.6 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Aug after 33.4 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Jul 2016
After · 3 Aug 2016

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 · 260Every 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 Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Almas fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 July 2016 and 27 July 2016: 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 7,607 hectares (76.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Almas (7,589 ha, 1.9 %); Ponte Alta do Tocantins (54 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Brazil (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: 193

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 193.

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.