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Altamira fire, 15 August 2019 Altamira

Out · last detection 5 Sept 2019, 17:10 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2019 in Altamira, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,343 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 537th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 957 with a page). Number 568 in Brazil in 2019, of 973.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Itaituba · 2024Itaituba · 2023Altamira · 2020Altamira · 2019

Burnt area
4,343ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
23days
15 Aug 2019 – 6 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
15 Aug
2019
Heat detections
337
in a single hotspot: 116 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Average daily power
198MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug6 Sept
5 Sept 2019

How it evolved, day by day

15 Aug 2019 · 100 MW · 12 16 Aug 2019 · 20 MW · 3 17 Aug 2019 · 1,107 MW · 20 18 Aug 2019 · 123 MW · 28 19 Aug 2019 · 19 MW · 11 22 Aug 2019 · 308 MW · 33 23 Aug 2019 · 51 MW · 27 24 Aug 2019 · 6 MW · 7 25 Aug 2019 · 1,003 MW · 86 26 Aug 2019 · 36 MW · 14 27 Aug 2019 · 144 MW · 8 28 Aug 2019 · 240 MW · 28 29 Aug 2019 · 111 MW · 30 30 Aug 2019 · 136 MW · 18 31 Aug 2019 · 3 MW · 1 1 Sept 2019 · 13 MW · 2 2 Sept 2019 · 123 MW · 6 5 Sept 2019 · 22 MW · 3
17 Aug 25 Aug 29 Aug 2 Sept

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
45km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

15% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 644 ha in 2016, 5 ha in 2018.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.7% of the area of London (43 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Altamira 126,279 inhabitants where it started
    4,373 ha reached on 15 Aug
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
15 Aug 35.0 °C 40 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm High 32
16 Aug 35.5 °C 34 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Aug 35.3 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Aug 35.1 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Aug 35.9 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Aug 35.5 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Aug 34.1 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.4 mm High 31
22 Aug 34.5 °C 43 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
23 Aug 35.2 °C 40 % 29 km/h 2.6 mm Moderate 12
24 Aug 33.6 °C 46 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 21
25 Aug 33.9 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
26 Aug 34.7 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Aug 35.5 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Aug 36.1 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Aug 35.9 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Aug 36.0 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
31 Aug 35.1 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Sept 34.5 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Sept 35.4 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.4 mm High 30
3 Sept 35.2 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm High 28
4 Sept 36.1 °C 39 % 39 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
5 Sept 35.4 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.4 mm High 30
6 Sept 34.9 °C 42 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm High 29
7 Sept after 34.9 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.7 mm High 29
8 Sept after 35.7 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Sept after 35.7 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Sept after 34.7 °C 39 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
11 Sept after 36.0 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Sept after 36.6 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Sept after 36.9 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Sept after 36.3 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Sept after 35.2 °C 38 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Sept after 36.5 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm High 31

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 32.4, a minimum humidity of 40% and 35 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 18.

FWI at the start 32.4
Minimum humidity 40 %
Days without rain 35
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Itaituba fire, August 2024
37,884 ha 41 days FWI 30.9 Min. humidity 40 % 48 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.9 mm on 24 Sept.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

20 days
median duration
4,040 ha
median area
17 %
went past 10,000 ha
1.9 mm
rain at the end (median; 13 of 18 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (4,343 ha against a median of 4,040 ha) and lasted 23 days, against 20 days.

In 5 of 18, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.9 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
45km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 6 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 13 of 18, with a median of 1.9 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Aug 2019
After · 13 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 · 337Every 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 Altamira fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 15 August 2019 to 6 September 2019 (23 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 August 2019 to 31 August 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,343 hectares (43.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Altamira (4,373 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 18. Their median duration was 20 days and their median area 4,040 ha; 17 % went past 10,000 ha. In 5 of 18, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.9 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 31 August 2019 → 6 September 2019.
  2. Start date: 22 August 2019 → 15 August 2019.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 22 August 2019 to 31 August 2019. 337 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.