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Altamira fire, 7 August 2022 Altamira, Novo Progresso

Out · last detection 13 Sept 2022, 04:34 UTC

The fire started on 7 August 2022 in Altamira, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 38 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 59,243 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 20th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 957 with a page). The largest in Brazil in 2022, of 682.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Novo Progresso · 2018Altamira · 2016Altamira · 2020Altamira · 2021

Burnt area
59,243ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
38days
7 Aug 2022 – 13 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
7 Aug
2022
Heat detections
5,778
in a single hotspot: 735 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Average daily power
3.0GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Aug13 Sept
13 Sept 2022

How it evolved, day by day

7 Aug 2022 · 524 MW · 14 8 Aug 2022 · 968 MW · 121 9 Aug 2022 · 561 MW · 40 10 Aug 2022 · 389 MW · 32 11 Aug 2022 · 554 MW · 64 12 Aug 2022 · 45 MW · 28 13 Aug 2022 · 4,744 MW · 82 14 Aug 2022 · 102 MW · 74 15 Aug 2022 · 520 MW · 47 16 Aug 2022 · 396 MW · 97 17 Aug 2022 · 732 MW · 83 18 Aug 2022 · 2,525 MW · 102 19 Aug 2022 · 299 MW · 44 20 Aug 2022 · 4,770 MW · 164 21 Aug 2022 · 8,508 MW · 237 22 Aug 2022 · 20,702 MW · 726 23 Aug 2022 · 3,130 MW · 429 24 Aug 2022 · 1,028 MW · 157 25 Aug 2022 · 250 MW · 44 26 Aug 2022 · 166 MW · 46 27 Aug 2022 · 271 MW · 42 28 Aug 2022 · 882 MW · 74 29 Aug 2022 · 5,336 MW · 187 30 Aug 2022 · 4,458 MW · 242 31 Aug 2022 · 547 MW · 107 1 Sept 2022 · 1,403 MW · 129 2 Sept 2022 · 5,453 MW · 346 3 Sept 2022 · 24,099 MW · 399 4 Sept 2022 · 5,795 MW · 455 5 Sept 2022 · 8,414 MW · 337 6 Sept 2022 · 890 MW · 208 7 Sept 2022 · 1,312 MW · 153 8 Sept 2022 · 1,534 MW · 104 9 Sept 2022 · 1,786 MW · 129 10 Sept 2022 · 1,155 MW · 130 11 Sept 2022 · 145 MW · 61 12 Sept 2022 · 79 MW · 37 13 Sept 2022 · 14 MW · 7
7 Aug 15 Aug 23 Aug 3 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

38°high
43km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 53 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 13.9 mm on 21 Sept.

This area had burned before

87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,720 ha in 2016, 5,065 ha in 2017, 4,299 ha in 2018, 11,066 ha in 2019, 42,099 ha in 2020, 32,539 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 51,500 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 37% of the area of London (592 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
    41,949 ha reached on 8 Aug
    0.3 %
  2. Novo Progresso 33,638 inhabitants
    20,121 ha reached on 7 Aug
    0.5 %

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 area0.78 ha
Residents≈ 30

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.78 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)
7 Aug 34.6 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
8 Aug 35.5 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.4 mm High 33
9 Aug 35.7 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
10 Aug 34.4 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
11 Aug 34.5 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Aug 34.5 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Aug 36.7 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Aug 34.4 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 44
15 Aug 35.3 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 41
16 Aug 35.6 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Aug 35.7 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Aug 36.1 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Aug 34.9 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Aug 34.6 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Aug 37.1 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Aug 35.7 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Aug 35.4 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Aug 36.8 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Aug 34.6 °C 32 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Aug 34.4 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Aug 35.5 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Aug 35.0 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
29 Aug 37.3 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Aug 37.1 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Aug 37.0 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Sept 36.8 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Sept 36.8 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Sept 36.6 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Sept 37.9 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Sept 35.9 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Sept 33.1 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
7 Sept 35.4 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Sept 35.8 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
9 Sept 35.2 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Sept 37.0 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Sept 36.2 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Sept 34.7 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
13 Sept 25.2 °C 83 % 26 km/h 4.0 mm Very low 1
14 Sept after 35.3 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
15 Sept after 33.8 °C 40 % 38 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 18
16 Sept after 34.1 °C 43 % 29 km/h 6.9 mm Low 6
17 Sept after 35.0 °C 42 % 38 km/h 5.5 mm Low 5
18 Sept after 31.6 °C 57 % 29 km/h 12.3 mm Very low 1
19 Sept after 31.3 °C 57 % 36 km/h 0.3 mm Low 5
20 Sept after 33.2 °C 49 % 20 km/h 0.1 mm Low 9
21 Sept after 32.9 °C 44 % 35 km/h 13.9 mm Very low 1

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 31.3, a minimum humidity of 38% and 53 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 28.

FWI at the start 31.3
Minimum humidity 38 %
Days without rain 53
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Novo Progresso fire, July 2018
4,514 ha 10 days FWI 31.0 Min. humidity 36 % 39 km away, in 2018

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.9 mm on 15 Aug.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

15 days
median duration
4,057 ha
median area
7 %
went past 10,000 ha
2.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 18 of 28 had it)

It was 14.6 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 38 days, against 15 days.

None of its 28 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 10 of 28, 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 2.6 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

13.9 mmfirst rain
21 Sept8 days after it ended
43km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 13 Sept, and on 21 Sept 13.9 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 18 of 28, with a median of 2.6 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 · 31 Jul 2022
After · 20 Sept 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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 23 August 2022 the air beside the fire reached 1,166 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 521: 35 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak1,166 µg/m³
Days over the guideline43 days
PM101,665 µg/m³
Optical depth2.86
5 Aug14 Aug23 Aug1 Sept10 Sept
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 5,778Every 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?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 August 2022 and 13 September 2022: 38 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 59,243 hectares (592.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Altamira (41,949 ha, 0.3 %); Novo Progresso (20,121 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
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: 28. Their median duration was 15 days and their median area 4,057 ha; 7 % went past 10,000 ha. None of its 28 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 10 of 28, 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 2.6 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Area: 61,533 → 59,243 ha.

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; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 5,778 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.