How long did the Altamira fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 31 July 2020 to 1 September 2020 (33 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 July 2020 to 25 August 2020.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 11,317 hectares (113.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Altamira (11,469 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.

BR · Brazil · 31 Jul 2020 – 1 Sept 2020

Altamira fire, 31 July 2020 Altamira

Out · last detection 2 Sept 2020, 17:03 UTC

The fire started on 31 July 2020 in Altamira, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 33 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,317 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 181th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 957 with a page). Number 166 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Use this data

Compare with…

Suggestions: Altamira · 2021 Altamira · 2024 Altamira · 2019 Altamira · 2017

Use this data

Fire page data · version 2026-10-25

matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel

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Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.

Burned area

satellite only

11,317ha

Union of 3 GWIS (Copernicus) perimeters: overlapping areas count once.

Source: GWIS (Copernicus)
Date: 31 Jul 2020 – 1 Sept 2020

+ cross-check

No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.

in my selection

Duration by satellite

satellite only

33days

31 Jul 2020 to 1 Sept 2020: first and last day with fire on the page.

Source: GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date: last detection: 2 Sept 2020, 17:03 UTC

+ cross-check

Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.

in my selection

Start

satellite only

31 Jul 2020

First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.

Source: GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date: 31 Jul 2020

+ cross-check

No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.

in my selection

Hotspots

satellite only

923

VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 587 MW.

Source: NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
Date: 31 Jul 2020 – 1 Sept 2020

+ cross-check

There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.

in my selection

The worst day

satellite only

8,636MW

Total radiative power on 7 August 2020; hotspots that day: 67.

Source: NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
Date: 7 Aug 2020

+ cross-check

Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.

in my selection

Danger at the start

model

39.1FWI · very high

Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 56.

Source: WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
Date: 31 Jul 2020, local noon
Model: ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com

+ cross-check

This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings

in my selection

Weather during the fire

model

36.6°C · 23% RH

High of 36.6 °C and minimum humidity of 23% on 17 August 2020; gusts of 41 km/h on 5 August 2020.

Source: weather model at the fire’s grid cell
Date: 31 Jul 2020 – 1 Sept 2020
Model: ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com

+ cross-check

These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.

in my selection

Living inside

model

≈ 30people

Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 0.56 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2020).

Source: GHSL R2023A · JRC
Date: calculated on 24 October 2026

+ cross-check

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.

in my selection

Versioned permanent link

https://worldfires.org/en/fire/altamira-2020-07-5?v=2026-10-25

A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.

Citation

A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives

In another language

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CSV for this fire altamira-2020-07-5.csv · daily, no individual hotspots

fecha	focos_viirs	frp_mw	tmax_c	tmin_c	hr_min_pct	viento_max_kmh	racha_max_kmh	precip_mm	fwi	clase_fwi	dentro_del_incendio
2020-07-31	55	6,723	34.3	18.4	24	15.9	38.5	0	39.1	muy_alto	1
2020-08-01	71	550	32.4	18.7	22	12.6	33.1	0	36.6	alto	1
2020-08-02	26	100	32.4	17.9	30	13.5	35.3	0	37.6	alto	1
2020-08-03	1	3	33	18.9	31	11	31.7	0	35.3	alto	1
2020-08-04	31	386	33.3	21	32	15.7	39.2	0	39.2	muy_alto	1
2020-08-05	43	483	32.6	19.8	31	16.2	41.4	0	39.9	muy_alto	1
2020-08-06	28	207	32.3	19.1	30	16.3	41	0	40.3	muy_alto	1
2020-08-07	67	8,636	32.4	18.7	30	15.5	39.6	0	39.8	muy_alto	1
2020-08-08	84	629	32.6	19.2	28	13.9	35.3	0	38.6	muy_alto	1
2020-08-09	23	44	32.7	18.4	28	12.3	31.7	0	37.4	alto	1
2020-08-10	13	101	33.7	17.9	29	8.3	25.2	0	34.2	alto	1
2020-08-11	18	60	34.1	18.2	33	10.9	28.4	0	35.5	alto	1
2020-08-12	9	108	33.4	21.4	37	8.9	25.9	0	31.5	alto	1
2020-08-13	23	67	35.1	20.1	31	8.8	25.9	0	31.7	alto	1
2020-08-14	18	646	34.7	20.7	27	11	29.5	0	34.4	alto	1
2020-08-15	10	20	35.3	18.8	29	7.8	23.8	0	32	alto	1
2020-08-16	6	35	35.3	19.5	28	7.3	23.4	0	31.8	alto	1
2020-08-17	32	1,160	36.6	18.8	23	7.1	24.8	0	34.7	alto	1
2020-08-18	84	1,484	35.8	20	25	8.2	25.2	0	35.8	alto	1
2020-08-19	12	61	35.6	19.7	29	10	28.8	0	37.7	alto	1
2020-08-20	10	19	34.7	19.5	32	6.5	21.2	0	33.3	alto	1
2020-08-21	8	166	31.9	21.1	38	10.4	29.5	0	32.2	alto	1
2020-08-22	13	139	32.3	19.3	35	10.5	28.8	0	32.5	alto	1
2020-08-23	3	36	33.9	19.8	33	7.9	23	0	30.6	alto	1
2020-08-24	19	145	32.5	20.9	43	9.3	23	0	28.9	alto	1
2020-08-25	6	8	33.1	22.4	47	13.6	27.7	0.2	30.2	alto	1
2020-08-26	16	134	34.1	22	46	4.6	24.8	0.3	24.1	alto	1
2020-08-27	12	57	35.1	22	42	5.4	21.6	2	12.2	moderado	1
2020-08-28	28	210	34.4	20.8	34	8.6	27.7	0	25.5	alto	1
2020-08-29	8	88	32.9	20.9	40	8.8	25.2	0	25.8	alto	1
2020-08-30	3	7	34.3	20.3	33	9.4	31.7	0	28.8	alto	1
2020-08-31	31	540	35.8	19.6	24	11.2	31	0	36.2	alto	1
2020-09-01	82	1,871	35.6	21	25	12.6	32.4	0	37.8	alto	1
2020-09-02	30	246	35.5	18.6	21	12.3	35.6	0	39.8	muy_alto	0
2020-09-03	0	0	35.1	19.9	25	10.5	29.9	0	38.4	muy_alto	0
2020-09-04	0	0	35.7	20	22	11.2	31.7	0	39.3	muy_alto	0
2020-09-05	0	0	36.4	19.1	23	11.2	30.6	0	39.5	muy_alto	0
2020-09-06	0	0	36.4	18.8	25	7.6	22	0	36.5	alto	0
2020-09-07	0	0	35.8	19.5	22	8.3	23.8	0	37.4	alto	0
2020-09-08	0	0	36.1	20.2	23	7.5	24.5	0	36.9	alto	0
2020-09-09	0	0	36.3	19.1	27	8.7	26.3	0	38.2	muy_alto	0
2020-09-10	0	0	35.5	22.2	30	9.2	26.6	0	37.2	alto	0
2020-09-11	0	0	34.5	20.9	33	7.5	29.2	0	33.6	alto	0

It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.

Live widget for your story

It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.

Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology

Burnt area: 11,317ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 33days; 31 Jul 2020 – 1 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 31 Jul; 2020
Heat detections: 923; in a single hotspot: 587 MW
Danger at start: 39; Very high · FWI index
Average daily power: 740MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Jul1 Sept

Play back 2 Sept 2020

How it evolved, day by day

31 Jul 7 Aug 14 Aug 21 Aug 28 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

37°high

41km/h · peak gust

22%lowest humidity

It had gone 56 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,508 ha in 2016, 2,560 ha in 2017, 2,306 ha in 2018, 7,067 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,379 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 7.1% of the area of London (113 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

Altamira 126,279 inhabitants where it started

11,469 ha reached on 31 Jul

0.1 %

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 area0.56 ha

Residents≈ 30

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.56 hectares of built-up land and about 30 residents (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)
31 Jul	34.3 °C	24 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
1 Aug	32.4 °C	22 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
2 Aug	32.4 °C	30 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
3 Aug	33.0 °C	31 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
4 Aug	33.3 °C	32 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
5 Aug	32.6 °C	31 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
6 Aug	32.3 °C	30 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
7 Aug	32.4 °C	30 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
8 Aug	32.6 °C	28 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
9 Aug	32.7 °C	28 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
10 Aug	33.7 °C	29 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
11 Aug	34.1 °C	33 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
12 Aug	33.4 °C	37 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
13 Aug	35.1 °C	31 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
14 Aug	34.7 °C	27 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
15 Aug	35.3 °C	29 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
16 Aug	35.3 °C	28 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
17 Aug	36.6 °C	23 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
18 Aug	35.8 °C	25 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
19 Aug	35.6 °C	29 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
20 Aug	34.7 °C	32 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
21 Aug	31.9 °C	38 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
22 Aug	32.3 °C	35 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
23 Aug	33.9 °C	33 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
24 Aug	32.5 °C	43 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
25 Aug	33.1 °C	47 %	28 km/h	0.2 mm	High 30
26 Aug	34.1 °C	46 %	25 km/h	0.3 mm	High 24
27 Aug	35.1 °C	42 %	22 km/h	2.0 mm	Moderate 12
28 Aug	34.4 °C	34 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
29 Aug	32.9 °C	40 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
30 Aug	34.3 °C	33 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
31 Aug	35.8 °C	24 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
1 Sept	35.6 °C	25 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
2 Sept after	35.5 °C	21 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
3 Sept after	35.1 °C	25 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
4 Sept after	35.7 °C	22 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
5 Sept after	36.4 °C	23 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
6 Sept after	36.4 °C	25 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
7 Sept after	35.8 °C	22 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
8 Sept after	36.1 °C	23 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
9 Sept after	36.3 °C	27 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
10 Sept after	35.5 °C	30 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
11 Sept after	34.5 °C	33 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 39.1, a minimum humidity of 24% and 56 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 17.

FWI at the start 39.1

Minimum humidity 24 %

Days without rain 56

this fire chosen twins rest of the area

How alike they must beTwins: 17

Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Same scale

Altamira fire, August 2021

4,854 ha 15 days FWI 39.0 Min. humidity 25 % 3 km away, in 2021

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.2 mm on 30 Aug.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

15 days
median duration: 4,854 ha
median area: 6 %
went past 10,000 ha: 4.5 mm
rain at the end (median; 10 of 17 had it)

It was 2.3 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 33 days, against 15 days.

Only 1 of its 17 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 7 of 17, 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 4.5 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

41km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 1 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 10 of 17, with a median of 4.5 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 · 24 Jul 2020

After · 8 Sept 2020

Before After

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 · 923Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

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 31 July 2020 to 1 September 2020 (33 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 July 2020 to 25 August 2020.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 11,317 hectares (113.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Altamira (11,469 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.
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: 17. Their median duration was 15 days and their median area 4,854 ha; 6 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 1 of its 17 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 7 of 17, 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 4.5 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

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

25 October 2026 Last day with fire: 25 August 2020 → 1 September 2020.

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 31 July 2020 to 25 August 2020. 923 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.

Use this data

Burned area

Duration by satellite

Start

Hotspots

The worst day

Danger at the start

Weather during the fire

Living inside

What was saved on 25 October 2026

Versioned permanent link

Citation

A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives

CSV for this fire altamira-2020-07-5.csv · daily, no individual hotspots

Live widget for your story

Where it burned

How it evolved, day by day

The weather it burned in

This area had burned before

How big is it?

What happened to each town

People and buildings inside the perimeter

The weather day by day

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

Outlines of the closest twins

What happened to them

How it ended

How a twin is chosen

Before and after, from space

Other fires nearby

Frequently asked questions

Where to verify it

Does something look wrong on this page?

Where this data comes from