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Almas fire, August 2019 Almas

Out · last detection 7 Sept 2019, 16:31 UTC

The fire started on 31 August 2019 in Almas, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,445 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 530th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 417 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.

Burnt area
5,445ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
31 Aug 2019 – 7 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
31 Aug
2019
Heat detections
167
in a single hotspot: 130 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Aug7 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

311234567

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
50km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

43% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,362 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Almas 6,499 inhabitants where it started
    5,475 ha reached on 31 Aug
    1.4 %

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)
31 Aug 35.6 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Sept 36.2 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Sept 37.3 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Sept 37.5 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Sept 36.8 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Sept 37.2 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Sept 35.7 °C 22 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
7 Sept 35.4 °C 24 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
8 Sept after 35.6 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Sept after 35.6 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Sept after 36.4 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
11 Sept after 36.2 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Sept after 36.8 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Sept after 38.0 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Sept after 38.3 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
15 Sept after 36.0 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 Sept after 36.5 °C 25 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
17 Sept after 36.7 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Aug 2019
After · 14 Sept 2019

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 31 August 2019 and 7 September 2019: 8 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 5,445 hectares (54.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Almas (5,475 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, class Extreme.
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.