Burned area
satellite only7,114ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 5 Sept 2020 – 17 Sept 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
BR · Brazil · –
Balsas fire, 5 September 2020 Recursolândia
Out · last detection 17 Sept 2020, 17:21 UTC
The fire started on 5 September 2020 in Balsas, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,114 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 114th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 531 with a page). Number 318 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-25matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only13days
5 Sept 2020 to 17 Sept 2020: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 17 Sept 2020, 17:21 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only5 Sept 2020
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 5 Sept 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only203
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 72 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 5 Sept 2020 – 17 Sept 2020
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only454MW
Total radiative power on 16 September 2020; hotspots that day: 54.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 16 Sept 2020
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model60.9FWI · extreme
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 5 Sept 2020, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model36.9°C · 25% RH
High of 36.9 °C and minimum humidity of 25% on 17 September 2020; gusts of 49 km/h on 13 September 2020.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 5 Sept 2020 – 17 Sept 2020
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 50people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 0.48 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2020).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
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.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logStart date: 8 September 2020 → 5 September 2020.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 25 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 7,114 ha
- Dates
- 5 Sept 2020 – 17 Sept 2020
- Name
- Balsas
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/balsas-2020-09-4?v=2026-10-25A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire balsas-2020-09-4.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-09-05 | 1 | 12 | 35.7 | 22.3 | 23 | 20.5 | 44.6 | 0 | 60.9 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-09-06 | 0 | 0 | 35.2 | 22.9 | 20 | 20.7 | 45 | 0 | 61.2 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-09-07 | 0 | 0 | 35.1 | 19.3 | 23 | 18.1 | 40.3 | 0 | 53.9 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-09-08 | 1 | 7 | 36.5 | 22.3 | 22 | 18.8 | 42.8 | 0 | 58.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-09-09 | 0 | 0 | 36.5 | 23.4 | 23 | 19.8 | 44.6 | 0 | 61.5 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-09-10 | 13 | 307 | 36.5 | 24 | 20 | 18.4 | 43.2 | 0 | 61.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-09-11 | 23 | 420 | 36.5 | 22.3 | 18 | 17.3 | 40.7 | 0 | 55.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-09-12 | 17 | 90 | 36.5 | 22.8 | 13 | 20.7 | 45.4 | 0 | 63.8 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-09-13 | 21 | 259 | 35.4 | 21.8 | 18 | 22.6 | 49.3 | 0 | 67.8 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-09-14 | 25 | 188 | 35.6 | 23.5 | 20 | 21.5 | 47.9 | 0 | 64.2 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-09-15 | 41 | 337 | 35.1 | 24 | 19 | 20.7 | 45.7 | 0 | 62.9 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-09-16 | 54 | 454 | 36.6 | 22.7 | 21 | 19.1 | 42.8 | 0 | 60.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-09-17 | 7 | 33 | 36.9 | 23.1 | 25 | 16.6 | 39.6 | 0 | 53.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-09-18 | 0 | 0 | 37.1 | 22.3 | 23 | 8.7 | 25.6 | 0 | 47.5 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-09-19 | 0 | 0 | 36.7 | 24.1 | 27 | 11.3 | 28.8 | 0 | 42.1 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-09-20 | 0 | 0 | 36.4 | 22.9 | 30 | 11.9 | 34.9 | 0 | 48.1 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-09-21 | 0 | 0 | 34.8 | 23.4 | 37 | 9.4 | 29.9 | 0 | 41.2 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-09-22 | 0 | 0 | 34.2 | 23.1 | 40 | 7.9 | 24.8 | 0.2 | 35.3 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-09-23 | 0 | 0 | 36.2 | 23.6 | 34 | 10.6 | 31.7 | 0 | 35.1 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-09-24 | 0 | 0 | 36.6 | 23.6 | 27 | 18.2 | 41.4 | 0 | 47.8 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-09-25 | 0 | 0 | 34.9 | 25.4 | 28 | 15.5 | 39.6 | 0 | 49.1 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-09-26 | 0 | 0 | 34.8 | 22.9 | 29 | 13.7 | 36 | 0 | 47.9 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-09-27 | 0 | 0 | 36.7 | 20.2 | 22 | 11.1 | 31.3 | 0 | 48.4 | muy_alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 7,114ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 5 Sept 2020 – 17 Sept 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 5 Sept
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 203
- in a single hotspot: 72 MW
- Danger at start
- 61
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 211MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
5 Sept17 Sept
17 Sept 2020
How it evolved, day by day
5 Sept
10 Sept
12 Sept
14 Sept
16 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
37°high
49km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
22% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 41 ha in 2016, 1,531 ha in 2017.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Recursolândia 3,421 inhabitants7,163 ha reached on 8 Sept3.2 %
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 2020Built-up area0.48 ha
Residents≈ 50
Inside the perimeter there were about 0.48 hectares of built-up land and about 50 residents (GHSL 2020, 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.
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 Extreme FWI: 46 % of the area in Brazil 60 days without rain: 55 % of the area in Brazil
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Sept | 35.7 °C | 23 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 6 Sept | 35.2 °C | 20 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 7 Sept | 35.1 °C | 23 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 8 Sept | 36.5 °C | 22 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 9 Sept | 36.5 °C | 23 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 10 Sept | 36.5 °C | 20 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 11 Sept | 36.5 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 12 Sept | 36.5 °C | 13 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 13 Sept | 35.4 °C | 18 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 14 Sept | 35.6 °C | 20 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 15 Sept | 35.1 °C | 19 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 16 Sept | 36.6 °C | 21 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 17 Sept | 36.9 °C | 25 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 18 Sept after | 37.1 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 19 Sept after | 36.7 °C | 27 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 20 Sept after | 36.4 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 21 Sept after | 34.8 °C | 37 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 22 Sept after | 34.2 °C | 40 % | 25 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 35 |
| 23 Sept after | 36.2 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 24 Sept after | 36.6 °C | 27 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 25 Sept after | 34.9 °C | 28 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 26 Sept after | 34.8 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 27 Sept after | 36.7 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 60.9, a minimum humidity of 23% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 28.
FWI at the start
60.9
Minimum humidity
23 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Balsas fire, 5 September 2020
7,114 ha
13 days
FWI 60.9
Min. humidity 23 %
Recursolândia fire, September 2017
5,771 ha
13 days
FWI 60.9
Min. humidity 24 %
38 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Lizarda fire, August 2024
23,543 ha
30 days
FWI 60.3
Min. humidity 24 %
39 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Santa Maria do Tocantins fire, September 2017
4,159 ha
4 days
FWI 60.6
Min. humidity 22 %
73 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Goiatins fire, August 2016
5,702 ha
8 days
FWI 59.0
Min. humidity 23 %
74 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Centenário fire, September 2016
6,507 ha
11 days
FWI 62.3
Min. humidity 24 %
60 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.2 mm on 17 Sept.
What happened to them
- 12 days
- median duration
- 5,340 ha
- median area
- 14 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- 6.2 mm
- rain at the end (median; 8 of 28 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (7,114 ha against a median of 5,340 ha) and lasted 13 days, against 12 days.
In 20 of 28, 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 6.2 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
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
49km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 17 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 8 of 28, with a median of 6.2 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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 29 Aug 2020
After · 24 Sept 2020
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 203Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Balsas fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 September 2020 to 17 September 2020 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 8 September 2020 to 17 September 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,114 hectares (71.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Recursolândia (7,163 ha, 3.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, 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.
- 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: 28. Their median duration was 12 days and their median area 5,340 ha; 14 % went past 10,000 ha. In 20 of 28, 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 6.2 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.
- Start date: 8 September 2020 → 5 September 2020.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 8 September 2020 to 17 September 2020. 203 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 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.