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Arraias fire, 22 August 2016 Arraias

Out · last detection 30 Aug 2016, 16:11 UTC

The fire started on 22 August 2016 in Arraias, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,190 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 564th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 259 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

Burnt area
5,190ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
22 Aug 2016 – 29 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
22 Aug
2016
Heat detections
174
in a single hotspot: 34 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
677MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Aug29 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

222324252627282930

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
48km/h · peak gust
18%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

  1. Arraias 10,287 inhabitants where it started
    5,216 ha reached on 22 Aug
    0.9 %

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)
22 Aug 34.7 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Aug 35.5 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 Aug 33.9 °C 29 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Aug 33.1 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Aug 33.5 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Aug 34.7 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Aug 31.7 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Aug 34.3 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Aug after 35.3 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Aug after 35.5 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Sept after 36.6 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Sept after 35.3 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
3 Sept after 33.1 °C 24 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Sept after 33.6 °C 21 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Sept after 33.8 °C 22 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Sept after 34.8 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Sept after 36.5 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Sept after 37.2 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Sept after 36.3 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Aug 2016
After · 5 Sept 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 · 174Every 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 Arraias fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 August 2016 and 29 August 2016: 8 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 5,190 hectares (51.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Arraias (5,216 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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

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.