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BR · Brazil · –

Altamira fire, 11 August 2022 Altamira, Novo Progresso

Out · last detection 12 Sept 2022, 04:52 UTC

The fire started on 11 August 2022 in Altamira, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 33 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,194 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 157th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 957 with a page). Number 79 in Brazil in 2022, of 682.

Burnt area
12,194ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
33days
11 Aug 2022 – 12 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
11 Aug
2022
Heat detections
879
in a single hotspot: 350 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Average daily power
325MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Aug12 Sept
12 Sept 2022

How it evolved, day by day

11 Aug 2022 · 3 MW · 2 12 Aug 2022 · 4 MW · 1 13 Aug 2022 · 2,079 MW · 33 14 Aug 2022 · 23 MW · 19 16 Aug 2022 · 7 MW · 5 17 Aug 2022 · 454 MW · 35 18 Aug 2022 · 338 MW · 26 19 Aug 2022 · 445 MW · 12 20 Aug 2022 · 9 MW · 6 21 Aug 2022 · 197 MW · 14 22 Aug 2022 · 511 MW · 54 23 Aug 2022 · 383 MW · 75 24 Aug 2022 · 201 MW · 25 25 Aug 2022 · 43 MW · 17 26 Aug 2022 · 5 MW · 5 27 Aug 2022 · 40 MW · 3 28 Aug 2022 · 149 MW · 24 29 Aug 2022 · 736 MW · 38 30 Aug 2022 · 154 MW · 35 31 Aug 2022 · 214 MW · 55 1 Sept 2022 · 78 MW · 39 2 Sept 2022 · 1,217 MW · 119 3 Sept 2022 · 1,499 MW · 133 4 Sept 2022 · 724 MW · 31 5 Sept 2022 · 443 MW · 36 6 Sept 2022 · 2 MW · 1 7 Sept 2022 · 40 MW · 5 8 Sept 2022 · 14 MW · 1 10 Sept 2022 · 3 MW · 2 11 Sept 2022 · 33 MW · 18 12 Sept 2022 · 16 MW · 10
13 Aug 19 Aug 26 Aug 2 Sept 10 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

37°high
38km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 56 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.2 mm on 16 Sept.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,618 ha in 2016, 1,313 ha in 2017, 1,433 ha in 2019, 2,401 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,716 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 7.7% of the area of London (122 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
    8,232 ha reached on 13 Aug
    0.0 %
  2. Novo Progresso 33,638 inhabitants
    4,454 ha reached on 11 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 area0.87 ha
Residents≈ 40

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.87 hectares of built-up land and about 40 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)
11 Aug 32.5 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Aug 32.4 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Aug 34.1 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Aug 33.3 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Aug 33.9 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Aug 34.1 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Aug 34.6 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Aug 35.1 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Aug 33.4 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Aug 33.7 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Aug 34.0 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Aug 34.5 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
23 Aug 34.5 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Aug 35.8 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Aug 31.8 °C 40 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
26 Aug 33.6 °C 37 % 31 km/h 1.0 mm High 32
27 Aug 34.2 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
28 Aug 34.5 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
29 Aug 36.1 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Aug 36.5 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Aug 35.4 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Sept 36.6 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Sept 36.2 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
3 Sept 35.6 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Sept 36.2 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Sept 35.5 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Sept 34.5 °C 36 % 36 km/h 1.3 mm High 37
7 Sept 34.7 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Sept 34.7 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
9 Sept 34.7 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Sept 35.8 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Sept 35.2 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Sept 34.1 °C 39 % 19 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
13 Sept after 30.8 °C 50 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm High 25
14 Sept after 34.1 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.3 mm High 28
15 Sept after 34.7 °C 38 % 22 km/h 0.4 mm High 30
16 Sept after 32.0 °C 51 % 27 km/h 4.2 mm Low 6

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 33.7, a minimum humidity of 36% and 56 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 18.

FWI at the start 33.7
Minimum humidity 36 %
Days without rain 56
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Altamira fire, August 2016
3,895 ha 13 days FWI 33.4 Min. humidity 35 % 151 km away, in 2016

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.1 mm on 2 Sept.

What happened to them

16 days
median duration
4,332 ha
median area
22 %
went past 10,000 ha
2.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 16 of 18 had it)

It was 2.8 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 33 days, against 16 days.

Only 2 of its 18 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 2 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 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

4.2 mmfirst rain
16 Sept4 days after it ended
38km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 12 Sept, and on 16 Sept 4.2 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 16 of 18, 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 · 4 Aug 2022
After · 19 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 1,092 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 466: 31 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak1,092 µg/m³
Days over the guideline28 days
PM101,557 µg/m³
Optical depth2.09
15 Aug21 Aug27 Aug2 Sept8 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 · 879Every 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 11 August 2022 to 12 September 2022 (33 days). The perimeter dates it from 17 August 2022 to 8 September 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 12,194 hectares (121.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Altamira (8,232 ha, 0.0 %); Novo Progresso (4,454 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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: 18. Their median duration was 16 days and their median area 4,332 ha; 22 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 2 of its 18 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 2 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 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 · 3 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Area: 12,591 → 12,194 ha.
  2. Last day with fire: 8 September 2022 → 12 September 2022.
  3. Start date: 17 August 2022 → 11 August 2022.

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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 17 August 2022 to 8 September 2022. 879 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.