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Almas fire, September 2018 Natividade, Pindorama do Tocantins, Almas

Out · last detection 25 Sept 2018, 16:37 UTC

The fire started on 18 September 2018 in Almas, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,924 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 467th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 69 in Brazil in 2018, of 291.

Burnt area
5,924ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
18 Sept 2018 – 24 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
18 Sept
2018
Heat detections
167
in a single hotspot: 66 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Sept24 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1819202122232425

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
43km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 15.1 mm on 1 Oct.

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 419 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Natividade 8,754 inhabitants
    2,638 ha reached on 18 Sept
    0.8 %
  2. Pindorama do Tocantins 4,478 inhabitants
    2,074 ha reached on 21 Sept
    1.3 %
  3. Almas 6,499 inhabitants where it started
    1,245 ha reached on 17 Sept
    0.3 %

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)
17 Sept 36.2 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Sept 35.9 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Sept 33.8 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Sept 32.7 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Sept 36.0 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Sept 36.3 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Sept 36.5 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Sept 31.6 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Sept after 34.2 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Sept after 34.1 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Sept after 34.9 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Sept after 35.0 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Sept after 34.3 °C 31 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Sept after 31.5 °C 45 % 22 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
1 Oct after 29.0 °C 62 % 26 km/h 15.1 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Sept 2018
After · 1 Oct 2018

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 · 167Every 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 18 September 2018 and 24 September 2018: 7 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 5,924 hectares (59.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Natividade (2,638 ha, 0.8 %); Pindorama do Tocantins (2,074 ha, 1.3 %); Almas (1,245 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.