Skip to content
worldfires
en
BR · Brazil · →

Altamira fire, 11 August 2022 Altamira, Novo Progresso

Out · last detection 16 Sept 2022, 05:17 UTC

The fire started on 11 August 2022 in Altamira, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 37 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 30,249 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 62th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 1114 with a page). Number 13 in Brazil in 2022, of 687.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Novo Progresso · 2017Altamira · 2019Altamira · 2019Altamira · 2020

Burnt area
30,249ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
37days
11 Aug 2022 – 16 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
11 Aug
2022
Heat detections
2,168
in a single hotspot: 389 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Average daily power
546MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Aug16 Sept
16 Sept 2022

How it evolved, day by day

11 Aug 2022 · 138 MW · 24 12 Aug 2022 · 52 MW · 10 13 Aug 2022 · 509 MW · 35 14 Aug 2022 · 30 MW · 14 15 Aug 2022 · 31 MW · 5 16 Aug 2022 · 115 MW · 26 17 Aug 2022 · 472 MW · 92 18 Aug 2022 · 1,632 MW · 75 19 Aug 2022 · 489 MW · 55 20 Aug 2022 · 763 MW · 112 21 Aug 2022 · 841 MW · 116 22 Aug 2022 · 2,489 MW · 331 23 Aug 2022 · 2,240 MW · 284 24 Aug 2022 · 1,303 MW · 111 25 Aug 2022 · 250 MW · 61 26 Aug 2022 · 5 MW · 4 27 Aug 2022 · 22 MW · 2 28 Aug 2022 · 32 MW · 5 29 Aug 2022 · 1,113 MW · 48 30 Aug 2022 · 414 MW · 50 31 Aug 2022 · 62 MW · 26 1 Sept 2022 · 263 MW · 38 2 Sept 2022 · 1,457 MW · 144 3 Sept 2022 · 1,309 MW · 130 4 Sept 2022 · 1,461 MW · 77 5 Sept 2022 · 317 MW · 64 7 Sept 2022 · 513 MW · 20 8 Sept 2022 · 436 MW · 71 9 Sept 2022 · 388 MW · 27 10 Sept 2022 · 247 MW · 25 11 Sept 2022 · 108 MW · 47 12 Sept 2022 · 89 MW · 32 13 Sept 2022 · 4 MW · 2 14 Sept 2022 · 38 MW · 1 15 Sept 2022 · 10 MW · 3 16 Sept 2022 · 2 MW · 1
11 Aug 17 Aug 22 Aug 23 Aug 29 Aug 4 Sept 11 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
35km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 56 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.5 mm on 17 Sept.

This area had burned before

89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,844 ha in 2016, 20,254 ha in 2017, 13,721 ha in 2019, 13,112 ha in 2020, 107 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 26,877 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 19% of the area of London (302 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
    22,614 ha reached on 11 Aug
    0.1 %
  2. Novo Progresso 33,638 inhabitants
    7,862 ha reached on 13 Aug
    0.2 %

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 area1.4 ha
Residents≈ 60

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.4 hectares of built-up land and about 60 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 33.0 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Aug 32.5 °C 41 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
13 Aug 34.3 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Aug 33.2 °C 42 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Aug 34.0 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Aug 34.6 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Aug 34.8 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Aug 35.3 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Aug 33.9 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Aug 34.0 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Aug 34.0 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Aug 34.8 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
23 Aug 34.7 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Aug 36.1 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Aug 31.7 °C 44 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
26 Aug 33.7 °C 39 % 31 km/h 2.2 mm Moderate 14
27 Aug 34.3 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
28 Aug 34.8 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
29 Aug 36.1 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
30 Aug 36.6 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 Aug 35.7 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Sept 36.9 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Sept 36.6 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Sept 35.9 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Sept 36.4 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Sept 35.9 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Sept 34.4 °C 39 % 33 km/h 2.1 mm Moderate 16
7 Sept 34.7 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
8 Sept 34.8 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
9 Sept 34.8 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Sept 36.3 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Sept 35.5 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Sept 34.4 °C 42 % 18 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
13 Sept 30.6 °C 53 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm High 22
14 Sept 34.4 °C 43 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm High 23
15 Sept 35.1 °C 40 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
16 Sept 32.8 °C 49 % 27 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 16
17 Sept after 34.8 °C 41 % 27 km/h 2.5 mm Low 10

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Aug 2022
After · 23 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 guideline39 days
PM101,557 µg/m³
Optical depth2.09
111213141516171819202122232425262728293031123456789101112131415161718
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 · 2,168Every 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 16 September 2022 (37 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 August 2022 to 15 September 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 30,249 hectares (302.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Altamira (22,614 ha, 0.1 %); Novo Progresso (7,862 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 15 September 2022 → 16 September 2022.
  2. Start date: 13 August 2022 → 11 August 2022.

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; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 13 August 2022 to 15 September 2022. 2,168 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.