How long did the Amarante do Maranhão fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 September 2017 and 25 September 2017: 17 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 18,104 hectares (181.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Amarante do Maranhão (18,221 ha, 2.4 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.

BR · Brazil · 2017-09-09 → 2017-09-25

Amarante do Maranhão fire, 9 September 2017 Amarante do Maranhão

Out · last detection 26 Sept 2017, 17:04 UTC

The fire started on 9 September 2017 in Amarante do Maranhão, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 18,104 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 17th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 607 with a page). Number 78 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area: 18,104ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 17days; 9 Sept 2017 – 25 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 9 Sept; 2017
Heat detections: 1,080; in a single hotspot: 524 MW
Danger at start: 42; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 27.5GW; sum of detected power

Play back 26 Sept 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Sept25 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

910111213141516171819202122232526

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

51km/h · peak gust

29%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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

Amarante do Maranhão 37,085 inhabitants where it started

18,221 ha reached on 4 Sept

2.4 %

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)
4 Sept	34.8 °C	34 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
5 Sept	34.4 °C	38 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
6 Sept	35.1 °C	39 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
7 Sept	35.1 °C	41 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
8 Sept	35.8 °C	37 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
9 Sept	35.3 °C	31 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
10 Sept	36.0 °C	31 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
11 Sept	35.2 °C	38 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
12 Sept	36.0 °C	33 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
13 Sept	34.9 °C	38 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
14 Sept	36.2 °C	37 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
15 Sept	35.5 °C	37 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
16 Sept	35.7 °C	29 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
17 Sept	35.5 °C	33 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
18 Sept	35.7 °C	34 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
19 Sept	36.2 °C	34 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
20 Sept	36.1 °C	36 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
21 Sept	36.1 °C	34 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
22 Sept	36.2 °C	33 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
23 Sept	36.1 °C	33 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
24 Sept	35.8 °C	33 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
25 Sept	33.5 °C	42 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
26 Sept after	36.8 °C	34 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
27 Sept after	36.1 °C	37 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
28 Sept after	36.6 °C	37 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
29 Sept after	37.0 °C	36 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
30 Sept after	35.3 °C	39 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
1 Oct after	36.4 °C	33 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
2 Oct after	36.0 °C	40 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
3 Oct after	36.4 °C	41 %	36 km/h	0.2 mm	High 34
4 Oct after	37.2 °C	36 %	30 km/h	0.2 mm	High 33
5 Oct after	36.5 °C	36 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
6 Oct after	36.7 °C	35 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
7 Oct after	35.2 °C	36 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
8 Oct after	35.4 °C	37 %	35 km/h	0.2 mm	High 35
9 Oct after	34.3 °C	46 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
10 Oct after	34.1 °C	45 %	39 km/h	0.2 mm	High 30
11 Oct after	34.7 °C	49 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
12 Oct after	35.4 °C	46 %	44 km/h	0.1 mm	High 31

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 2 Sept 2017

After · 2 Oct 2017

Before After

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 · 1,080Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Amarante do Maranhão fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 September 2017 and 25 September 2017: 17 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 18,104 hectares (181.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Amarante do Maranhão (18,221 ha, 2.4 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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.

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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.

Where it burned