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Amarante do Maranhão fire, July 2016 Amarante do Maranhão, Arame

Out · last detection 17 Aug 2016, 16:57 UTC

The fire started on 23 July 2016 in Amarante do Maranhão, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 25 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 29,518 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 9th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 607 with a page). Number 9 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

Burnt area
29,518ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
25days
23 Jul 2016 – 16 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
23 Jul
2016
Heat detections
1,535
in a single hotspot: 135 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Average daily power
522MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

17 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Jul16 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

23 Jul 2016 · 526 MW · 46 24 Jul 2016 · 519 MW · 37 25 Jul 2016 · 704 MW · 52 26 Jul 2016 · 960 MW · 109 27 Jul 2016 · 1,201 MW · 128 28 Jul 2016 · 559 MW · 122 29 Jul 2016 · 18 MW · 5 30 Jul 2016 · 1,032 MW · 53 31 Jul 2016 · 542 MW · 118 1 Aug 2016 · 803 MW · 128 2 Aug 2016 · 521 MW · 75 3 Aug 2016 · 544 MW · 43 4 Aug 2016 · 519 MW · 66 5 Aug 2016 · 1,649 MW · 93 6 Aug 2016 · 1,825 MW · 174 7 Aug 2016 · 697 MW · 91 8 Aug 2016 · 210 MW · 29 9 Aug 2016 · 11 MW · 3 10 Aug 2016 · 159 MW · 22 11 Aug 2016 · 41 MW · 20 12 Aug 2016 · 45 MW · 9 13 Aug 2016 · 49 MW · 21 14 Aug 2016 · 197 MW · 31 15 Aug 2016 · 208 MW · 22 16 Aug 2016 · 31 MW · 20 17 Aug 2016 · 5 MW · 3
23 Jul 27 Jul 31 Jul 4 Aug 6 Aug 8 Aug 12 Aug 16 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

35°high
46km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Amarante do Maranhão 37,085 inhabitants where it started
    23,808 ha reached on 23 Jul
    3.2 %
  2. Arame 25,517 inhabitants
    5,905 ha reached on 28 Jul
    2.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

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)
16 Jul 33.0 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Jul 33.7 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Jul 33.4 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Jul 30.9 °C 51 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
20 Jul 31.5 °C 43 % 44 km/h 0.4 mm High 26
21 Jul 32.6 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Jul 33.4 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Jul 32.5 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Jul 32.8 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Jul 33.0 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Jul 32.6 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Jul 32.6 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Jul 32.2 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Jul 32.6 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
30 Jul 32.7 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Jul 31.9 °C 33 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Aug 32.6 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Aug 33.0 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Aug 33.0 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Aug 33.1 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Aug 33.2 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Aug 33.1 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Aug 33.7 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Aug 33.2 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Aug 33.1 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Aug 33.3 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Aug 32.2 °C 44 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Aug 31.5 °C 50 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Aug 31.9 °C 44 % 40 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
14 Aug 33.1 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Aug 33.5 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Aug 33.7 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Aug after 34.1 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Aug after 34.3 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Aug after 33.5 °C 40 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Aug after 33.9 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Aug after 33.6 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Aug after 34.7 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Aug after 32.1 °C 49 % 31 km/h 0.5 mm High 29
24 Aug after 33.1 °C 34 % 45 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
25 Aug after 33.8 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Aug after 33.7 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Aug after 34.2 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
28 Aug after 33.7 °C 33 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Aug after 34.1 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Aug after 33.6 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Aug after 33.7 °C 38 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Sept after 35.2 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
2 Sept after 35.4 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Jul 2016
After · 23 Aug 2016

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 · 1,535Every 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 Amarante do Maranhão fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 July 2016 and 16 August 2016: 25 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 29,518 hectares (295.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Amarante do Maranhão (23,808 ha, 3.2 %); Arame (5,905 ha, 2.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 46 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

Satellite cross-check

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
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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.

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.