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Arame fire, 23 September 2017 Arame, Grajaú

Out · last detection 8 Oct 2017, 16:39 UTC

The fire started on 23 September 2017 in Arame, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,267 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 215th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 607 with a page). Number 439 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
5,267ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
23 Sept 2017 – 8 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
23 Sept
2017
Heat detections
219
in a single hotspot: 103 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Sept8 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

232425262728293012478

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
48km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 26 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 16 Oct.

This area had burned before

31% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,622 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Arame 25,517 inhabitants where it started
    4,255 ha reached on 16 Sept
    1.4 %
  2. Grajaú 73,872 inhabitants
    1,048 ha reached on 16 Sept
    0.1 %

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 Sept 34.7 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Sept 34.8 °C 35 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Sept 34.8 °C 38 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Sept 35.5 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Sept 35.2 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Sept 35.4 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Sept 35.3 °C 36 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Sept 35.3 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
24 Sept 35.1 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Sept 33.7 °C 40 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Sept 36.1 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Sept 35.6 °C 38 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Sept 36.2 °C 37 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Sept 36.4 °C 38 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
30 Sept 34.9 °C 39 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Oct 35.7 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Oct 35.3 °C 43 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
3 Oct 36.2 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Oct 36.6 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
5 Oct 35.8 °C 38 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Oct 36.2 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Oct 34.9 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Oct 34.7 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Oct after 34.1 °C 47 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
10 Oct after 33.1 °C 48 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm High 29
11 Oct after 34.5 °C 50 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
12 Oct after 34.8 °C 48 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
13 Oct after 35.4 °C 47 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
14 Oct after 34.8 °C 46 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm High 31
15 Oct after 33.6 °C 51 % 36 km/h 0.6 mm High 27
16 Oct after 33.2 °C 55 % 35 km/h 2.1 mm Moderate 13

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Sept 2017
After · 15 Oct 2017

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 · 219Every 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 23 September 2017 and 8 October 2017: 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 5,267 hectares (52.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Arame (4,255 ha, 1.4 %); Grajaú (1,048 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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
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.