How long did the Araioses fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 September 2018 and 10 October 2018: 16 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 3,869 hectares (38.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Araioses (2,870 ha, 1.6 %); Magalhães de Almeida (1,026 ha, 2.4 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.

BR · Brazil · 2018-09-25 → 2018-10-10

Araioses fire, September 2018 Araioses, Magalhães de Almeida

Out · last detection 10 Oct 2018, 16:58 UTC

The fire started on 25 September 2018 in Araioses, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,869 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 369th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 607 with a page). Number 173 in Brazil in 2018, of 291.

Burnt area: 3,869ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 16days; 25 Sept 2018 – 10 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 25 Sept; 2018
Heat detections: 148; in a single hotspot: 122 MW
Danger at start: 48; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 3.0GW; sum of detected power

Play back 10 Oct 2018

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Sept10 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

25262728293012345678910

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

48km/h · peak gust

24%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

62% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,449 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

Araioses 39,052 inhabitants where it started

2,870 ha reached on 25 Sept

1.6 %
Magalhães de Almeida 13,807 inhabitants

1,026 ha reached on 29 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)
25 Sept	36.8 °C	32 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
26 Sept	36.2 °C	35 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
27 Sept	36.1 °C	31 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
28 Sept	36.8 °C	30 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
29 Sept	36.8 °C	31 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
30 Sept	36.3 °C	38 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
1 Oct	36.4 °C	33 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
2 Oct	36.7 °C	31 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
3 Oct	37.0 °C	29 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
4 Oct	35.2 °C	42 %	45 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 42
5 Oct	35.1 °C	42 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
6 Oct	34.1 °C	44 %	38 km/h	0.2 mm	High 37
7 Oct	36.6 °C	33 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
8 Oct	37.1 °C	27 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
9 Oct	38.5 °C	24 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
10 Oct	37.3 °C	30 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
11 Oct after	37.3 °C	30 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
12 Oct after	35.8 °C	34 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
13 Oct after	37.0 °C	30 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
14 Oct after	35.6 °C	40 %	40 km/h	0.7 mm	High 35
15 Oct after	33.6 °C	52 %	41 km/h	6.2 mm	Low 10
16 Oct after	33.6 °C	48 %	35 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 21
17 Oct after	33.6 °C	46 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
18 Oct after	35.3 °C	37 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
19 Oct after	36.4 °C	32 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
20 Oct after	37.6 °C	32 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
21 Oct after	35.9 °C	39 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
22 Oct after	36.5 °C	31 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
23 Oct after	37.2 °C	29 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
24 Oct after	37.4 °C	32 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
25 Oct after	38.1 °C	30 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
26 Oct after	37.6 °C	32 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
27 Oct after	36.1 °C	36 %	46 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 18 Sept 2018

After · 17 Oct 2018

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 · 148Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Araioses fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 September 2018 and 10 October 2018: 16 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 3,869 hectares (38.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Araioses (2,870 ha, 1.6 %); Magalhães de Almeida (1,026 ha, 2.4 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.

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