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Almas fire, 14 September 2019 Natividade, Almas

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2019, 16:05 UTC

The fire started on 14 September 2019 in Almas, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,043 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 591th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 462 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.

Burnt area
5,043ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
14 Sept 2019 – 19 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
14 Sept
2019
Heat detections
199
in a single hotspot: 177 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Sept19 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
41km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 28 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Natividade 8,754 inhabitants
    3,753 ha reached on 14 Sept
    1.2 %
  2. Almas 6,499 inhabitants where it started
    1,326 ha reached on 14 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)
14 Sept 39.5 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Sept 37.3 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Sept 37.2 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Sept 37.6 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
18 Sept 38.7 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Sept 38.5 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Sept after 38.7 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Sept after 38.5 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Sept after 37.4 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Sept after 37.4 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Sept after 37.6 °C 23 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
25 Sept after 36.0 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Sept after 35.6 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Sept after 35.0 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Sept after 35.3 °C 39 % 24 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 20

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Sept 2019
After · 26 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 · 199Every 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 14 September 2019 and 19 September 2019: 6 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 5,043 hectares (50.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Natividade (3,753 ha, 1.2 %); Almas (1,326 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.