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BR · Brazil · –

Babaçulândia fire, September 2024 Babaçulândia

Out · last detection 24 Sept 2024, 04:19 UTC

The fire started on 1 September 2024 in Babaçulândia, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,398 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 148th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1036 with a page). Number 272 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Burnt area
11,398ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
23days
1 Sept 2024 – 23 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
1 Sept
2024
Heat detections
421
in a single hotspot: 74 MW
Danger at start
60
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
214MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Sept23 Sept
24 Sept 2024

How it evolved, day by day

1 Sept 2024 · 27 MW · 2 2 Sept 2024 · 216 MW · 24 3 Sept 2024 · 113 MW · 5 4 Sept 2024 · 15 MW · 2 5 Sept 2024 · 84 MW · 5 6 Sept 2024 · 1,369 MW · 78 7 Sept 2024 · 309 MW · 54 8 Sept 2024 · 215 MW · 23 9 Sept 2024 · 254 MW · 13 10 Sept 2024 · 99 MW · 12 11 Sept 2024 · 44 MW · 16 12 Sept 2024 · 129 MW · 27 13 Sept 2024 · 730 MW · 52 14 Sept 2024 · 401 MW · 36 15 Sept 2024 · 279 MW · 18 16 Sept 2024 · 103 MW · 20 17 Sept 2024 · 91 MW · 10 18 Sept 2024 · 8 MW · 1 19 Sept 2024 · 42 MW · 3 22 Sept 2024 · 104 MW · 8 23 Sept 2024 · 81 MW · 11 24 Sept 2024 · 2 MW · 1
1 Sept 6 Sept 11 Sept 16 Sept 23 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
45km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.6 mm on 30 Sept.

This area had burned before

66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 804 ha in 2016, 3 ha in 2017, 202 ha in 2019, 2,310 ha in 2020, 1,124 ha in 2021, 4,754 ha in 2022, 1,617 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,471 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 7.2% of the area of London (114 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Babaçulândia 7,880 inhabitants where it started
    11,518 ha reached on 1 Sept
    6.4 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area0.55 ha
Residents≈ 40

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.55 hectares of built-up land and about 40 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 55 % of the area in Brazil

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
1 Sept 37.2 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
2 Sept 37.4 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
3 Sept 37.2 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Sept 38.3 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Sept 38.1 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
6 Sept 37.5 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
7 Sept 38.1 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
8 Sept 37.4 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
9 Sept 37.7 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
10 Sept 37.8 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
11 Sept 38.0 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
12 Sept 38.2 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
13 Sept 37.8 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
14 Sept 37.9 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
15 Sept 38.3 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
16 Sept 38.6 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Sept 38.8 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
18 Sept 37.7 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Sept 38.1 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Sept 38.7 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Sept 38.2 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Sept 37.8 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Sept 37.4 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Sept after 36.3 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Sept after 34.2 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
26 Sept after 35.7 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Sept after 36.0 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Sept after 36.0 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
29 Sept after 35.7 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
30 Sept after 35.2 °C 41 % 39 km/h 3.6 mm High 30

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 60.1, a minimum humidity of 20% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 26.

FWI at the start 60.1
Minimum humidity 20 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Carolina fire, September 2020
3,664 ha 12 days FWI 59.9 Min. humidity 20 % 34 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

10 days
median duration
4,492 ha
median area
8 %
went past 10,000 ha
2.4 mm
rain at the end (median; 6 of 26 had it)

It was 2.5 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 23 days, against 10 days.

Only 1 of its 26 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 20 of 26, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.4 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

3.6 mmfirst rain
30 Sept7 days after it ended
45km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 23 Sept, and on 30 Sept 3.6 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 6 of 26, with a median of 2.4 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Aug 2024
After · 30 Sept 2024

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 15 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 41 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak41 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM1059 µg/m³
Optical depth0.75
30 Aug6 Sept13 Sept20 Sept27 Sept
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 421Every 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 Babaçulândia fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 1 September 2024 to 23 September 2024 (23 days). The perimeter dates it from 6 September 2024 to 23 September 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 11,398 hectares (114.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Babaçulândia (11,518 ha, 6.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 71, class Very 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 26. Their median duration was 10 days and their median area 4,492 ha; 8 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 1 of its 26 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 20 of 26, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.4 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 6 September 2024 → 1 September 2024.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 6 September 2024 to 23 September 2024. 421 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.