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Altamira fire, 1 August 2020 Altamira

Out · last detection 26 Aug 2020, 17:35 UTC

The fire started on 1 August 2020 in Altamira, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,780 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 168th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 957 with a page). Number 155 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Altamira · 2016São Félix do Xingu · 2021Altamira · 2019Altamira · 2019

Burnt area
11,780ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
26days
1 Aug 2020 – 26 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
1 Aug
2020
Heat detections
1,426
in a single hotspot: 666 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Average daily power
961MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Aug26 Aug
26 Aug 2020

How it evolved, day by day

1 Aug 2020 · 885 MW · 18 2 Aug 2020 · 509 MW · 30 3 Aug 2020 · 9 MW · 9 4 Aug 2020 · 716 MW · 23 5 Aug 2020 · 19 MW · 10 6 Aug 2020 · 33 MW · 8 7 Aug 2020 · 12 MW · 2 8 Aug 2020 · 6,158 MW · 35 9 Aug 2020 · 365 MW · 40 10 Aug 2020 · 1,610 MW · 63 11 Aug 2020 · 1,089 MW · 129 12 Aug 2020 · 974 MW · 37 13 Aug 2020 · 1,988 MW · 136 14 Aug 2020 · 2,220 MW · 135 15 Aug 2020 · 2,225 MW · 197 16 Aug 2020 · 1,807 MW · 177 17 Aug 2020 · 2,491 MW · 80 18 Aug 2020 · 789 MW · 72 19 Aug 2020 · 153 MW · 57 20 Aug 2020 · 261 MW · 41 21 Aug 2020 · 493 MW · 72 22 Aug 2020 · 70 MW · 31 23 Aug 2020 · 4 MW · 2 24 Aug 2020 · 6 MW · 1 25 Aug 2020 · 57 MW · 6 26 Aug 2020 · 31 MW · 15
1 Aug 8 Aug 13 Aug 19 Aug 25 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

36°high
41km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 49 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 28 Aug.

This area had burned before

88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,731 ha in 2017, 2,112 ha in 2018, 10,460 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,328 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 7.4% of the area of London (118 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
    11,848 ha reached on 1 Aug
    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 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)
1 Aug 33.0 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Aug 32.3 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Aug 33.3 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Aug 33.6 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Aug 32.7 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
6 Aug 32.2 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Aug 32.6 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Aug 32.5 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Aug 33.0 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Aug 34.0 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Aug 33.9 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Aug 33.8 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Aug 34.9 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Aug 34.6 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Aug 35.3 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 Aug 35.3 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Aug 36.2 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Aug 34.8 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Aug 35.2 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Aug 35.4 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Aug 35.7 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Aug 32.2 °C 40 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Aug 33.0 °C 37 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Aug 30.6 °C 51 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
25 Aug 32.5 °C 51 % 34 km/h 0.5 mm High 24
26 Aug 34.5 °C 43 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
27 Aug after 34.7 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.5 mm High 24
28 Aug after 32.2 °C 47 % 24 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 15

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 34.2, a minimum humidity of 25% and 49 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 38.

FWI at the start 34.2
Minimum humidity 25 %
Days without rain 49
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Altamira fire, July 2016
4,069 ha 13 days FWI 36.3 Min. humidity 25 % 47 km away, in 2016

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

16 days
median duration
4,452 ha
median area
11 %
went past 10,000 ha
1.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 25 of 38 had it)

It was 2.6 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 26 days, against 16 days.

Only 4 of its 38 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 13 of 38, 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 1.6 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

1.1 mmfirst rain
28 Aug2 days after it ended
41km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 26 Aug, and on 28 Aug 1.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 25 of 38, with a median of 1.6 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 · 25 Jul 2020
After · 2 Sept 2020

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 · 1,426Every 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 1 August 2020 to 26 August 2020 (26 days). The perimeter dates it from 8 August 2020 to 24 August 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 11,780 hectares (117.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Altamira (11,848 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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: 38. Their median duration was 16 days and their median area 4,452 ha; 11 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 4 of its 38 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 13 of 38, 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 1.6 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: 24 August 2020 → 26 August 2020.
  2. Start date: 8 August 2020 → 1 August 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?

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 8 August 2020 to 24 August 2020. 1,426 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.