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Almas fire, July 2022 Almas, Natividade

Out · last measured on 5 Aug 2022

The fire started on 30 July 2022 in Almas, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,773 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 489th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 249 in Brazil in 2022, of 687.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
5,773ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
30 Jul 2022 – 5 Aug 2022
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
30 Jul
2022
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

34°high
40km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,089 ha in 2016, 1,450 ha in 2018, 3,031 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,612 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Almas 6,499 inhabitants where it started
    5,530 ha
    1.4 %
  2. Natividade 8,754 inhabitants
    276 ha
    0.1 %

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)
30 Jul 33.2 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
31 Jul 33.9 °C 18 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Aug 32.9 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Aug 32.2 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Aug 32.0 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Aug 32.3 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Aug 31.5 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
6 Aug after 33.1 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Aug after 33.6 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 Aug after 33.9 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Aug after 33.6 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Aug after 33.5 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Aug after 33.5 °C 21 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Aug after 34.0 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Aug after 32.4 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Aug after 32.4 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Aug after 31.1 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Jul 2022
After · 12 Aug 2022

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Almas fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 July 2022 and 5 August 2022: 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 5,773 hectares (57.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Almas (5,530 ha, 1.4 %); Natividade (276 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 40 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.