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Arraias fire, October 2016 Arraias

Out · last detection 18 Oct 2016, 15:53 UTC

The fire started on 15 October 2016 in Arraias, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,133 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1176th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 598 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

Burnt area
3,133ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
15 Oct 2016 – 18 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
15 Oct
2016
Heat detections
101
in a single hotspot: 52 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
696MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Oct18 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

15161718

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
40km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 14.4 mm on 20 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. Arraias 10,287 inhabitants where it started
    3,150 ha reached on 15 Oct
    0.5 %

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)
15 Oct 36.9 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
16 Oct 36.1 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Oct 36.2 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Oct 35.6 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
19 Oct after 35.6 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
20 Oct after 33.6 °C 41 % 23 km/h 14.4 mm Very low 2

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Oct 2016
After · 25 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 · 101Every 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 15 October 2016 and 18 October 2016: 4 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 3,133 hectares (31.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Arraias (3,150 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.