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Baliza fire, 25 August 2019 Baliza, Torixoréu

Out · last detection 7 Sept 2019, 16:29 UTC

The fire started on 25 August 2019 in Baliza, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,634 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 140th largest in Goiás since 2016 (of 548 with a page). Number 255 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.

Burnt area
7,634ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
25 Aug 2019 – 6 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
25 Aug
2019
Heat detections
283
in a single hotspot: 69 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Aug6 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

252627282930311234567

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
42km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,662 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Baliza 3,351 inhabitants where it started
    7,366 ha reached on 24 Aug
    4.1 %
  2. Torixoréu 4,164 inhabitants
    309 ha reached on 6 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)
24 Aug 35.6 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Aug 36.3 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Aug 34.7 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Aug 33.7 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Aug 34.0 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Aug 35.1 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
30 Aug 36.2 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Aug 37.2 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Sept 37.6 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Sept 37.2 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
3 Sept 37.8 °C 22 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Sept 38.9 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Sept 38.8 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Sept 37.6 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 Sept after 36.5 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Sept after 36.1 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Sept after 37.0 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Sept after 37.5 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Sept after 38.4 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Sept after 39.4 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Sept after 39.3 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Sept after 40.0 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Sept after 39.3 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Sept after 38.3 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Sept after 39.5 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Aug 2019
After · 13 Sept 2019

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 · 283Every 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 Baliza fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 August 2019 and 6 September 2019: 13 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 7,634 hectares (76.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Baliza (7,366 ha, 4.1 %); Torixoréu (309 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.

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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.