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Altamira fire, 15 July 2021 Altamira

Out · last detection 26 Aug 2021, 16:51 UTC

The fire started on 15 July 2021 in Altamira, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 43 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,933 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 133th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 1100 with a page). Number 85 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Compare with…

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

Burnt area
14,933ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
43days
15 Jul 2021 – 26 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
15 Jul
2021
Heat detections
1,660
in a single hotspot: 539 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Average daily power
982MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Jul26 Aug
26 Aug 2021

How it evolved, day by day

15 Jul 2021 · 69 MW · 4 16 Jul 2021 · 67 MW · 6 17 Jul 2021 · 4 MW · 4 18 Jul 2021 · 594 MW · 14 19 Jul 2021 · 975 MW · 43 20 Jul 2021 · 475 MW · 53 21 Jul 2021 · 395 MW · 18 22 Jul 2021 · 36 MW · 22 23 Jul 2021 · 3,054 MW · 61 24 Jul 2021 · 1,769 MW · 73 25 Jul 2021 · 647 MW · 47 26 Jul 2021 · 405 MW · 50 27 Jul 2021 · 785 MW · 59 28 Jul 2021 · 1,754 MW · 61 29 Jul 2021 · 2,272 MW · 113 30 Jul 2021 · 1,131 MW · 80 31 Jul 2021 · 1,310 MW · 40 1 Aug 2021 · 129 MW · 20 2 Aug 2021 · 786 MW · 38 3 Aug 2021 · 40 MW · 24 4 Aug 2021 · 981 MW · 15 5 Aug 2021 · 289 MW · 56 6 Aug 2021 · 158 MW · 27 7 Aug 2021 · 238 MW · 16 8 Aug 2021 · 945 MW · 27 9 Aug 2021 · 312 MW · 30 10 Aug 2021 · 194 MW · 17 11 Aug 2021 · 167 MW · 24 12 Aug 2021 · 16,540 MW · 193 13 Aug 2021 · 541 MW · 135 15 Aug 2021 · 56 MW · 20 16 Aug 2021 · 23 MW · 7 17 Aug 2021 · 200 MW · 21 18 Aug 2021 · 400 MW · 34 19 Aug 2021 · 242 MW · 65 20 Aug 2021 · 2,778 MW · 66 21 Aug 2021 · 247 MW · 39 22 Aug 2021 · 2 MW · 2 23 Aug 2021 · 27 MW · 7 24 Aug 2021 · 145 MW · 7 25 Aug 2021 · 46 MW · 17 26 Aug 2021 · 32 MW · 5
15 Jul 21 Jul 27 Jul 2 Aug 8 Aug 12 Aug 15 Aug 21 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

38°high
43km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 26 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 27 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 9.4% of the area of London (149 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
    15,033 ha reached on 15 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 area0.12 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.12 hectares of 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 Jul 35.7 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Jul 36.1 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Jul 36.0 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Jul 36.3 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Jul 36.4 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Jul 36.6 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Jul 35.5 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Jul 36.2 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Jul 37.1 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Jul 35.5 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Jul 35.2 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Jul 36.2 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
27 Jul 36.1 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Jul 36.7 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Jul 34.0 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Jul 34.9 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Jul 35.8 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Aug 36.0 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Aug 35.6 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Aug 36.0 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Aug 37.1 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Aug 37.1 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Aug 36.1 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Aug 36.5 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Aug 35.8 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Aug 36.9 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Aug 36.8 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Aug 37.5 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Aug 36.9 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Aug 34.9 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Aug 32.7 °C 44 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Aug 34.6 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm High 27
16 Aug 34.7 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Aug 36.6 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 Aug 37.8 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Aug 38.1 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Aug 37.7 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Aug 36.9 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Aug 37.0 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Aug 37.9 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Aug 37.6 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Aug 36.0 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Aug 36.4 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.9 mm High 27
27 Aug after 35.1 °C 39 % 33 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Jul 2021
After · 2 Sept 2021

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 · 1,660Every 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 July 2021 to 26 August 2021 (43 days). The perimeter dates it from 15 July 2021 to 21 August 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 14,933 hectares (149.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Altamira (15,033 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 21 August 2021 → 26 August 2021.

RSS Changes to this page

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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 15 July 2021 to 21 August 2021. 1,660 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.