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Arame fire, October 2016 Arame, Grajaú

Out · last detection 19 Oct 2016, 17:16 UTC

The fire started on 13 October 2016 in Arame, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,415 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 205th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 607 with a page). Number 239 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

Burnt area
5,415ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
13 Oct 2016 – 19 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
13 Oct
2016
Heat detections
235
in a single hotspot: 69 MW
Danger at start
12
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
225MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

19 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Oct19 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

13 Oct 2016 · 79 MW · 8 14 Oct 2016 · 92 MW · 33 15 Oct 2016 · 584 MW · 59 16 Oct 2016 · 399 MW · 46 17 Oct 2016 · 306 MW · 64 18 Oct 2016 · 101 MW · 16 19 Oct 2016 · 14 MW · 7
13 Oct 14 Oct 15 Oct 16 Oct 17 Oct 18 Oct 19 Oct

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high
44km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 21 Oct.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Arame 25,517 inhabitants where it started
    3,564 ha reached on 10 Oct
    1.2 %
  2. Grajaú 73,872 inhabitants
    1,888 ha reached on 14 Oct
    0.2 %

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)
10 Oct 35.1 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
11 Oct 36.5 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
12 Oct 35.0 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
13 Oct 35.0 °C 40 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 21
14 Oct 36.0 °C 37 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
15 Oct 36.0 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
16 Oct 36.4 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
17 Oct 34.5 °C 48 % 35 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 20
18 Oct 36.0 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
19 Oct 36.2 °C 41 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
20 Oct after 33.3 °C 51 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
21 Oct after 31.9 °C 54 % 27 km/h 1.3 mm Low 10

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Oct 2016
After · 26 Oct 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 · 235Every 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 Arame fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 October 2016 and 19 October 2016: 7 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 5,415 hectares (54.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Arame (3,564 ha, 1.2 %); Grajaú (1,888 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, class 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
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.

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.