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Bannach fire, August 2020 Bannach, Cumaru do Norte, Ourilândia do Norte

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2020, 16:44 UTC

The fire started on 28 August 2020 in Bannach, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 36,268 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 48th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 1095 with a page). Number 37 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area
36,268ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
28 Aug 2020 – 18 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
28 Aug
2020
Heat detections
1,798
in a single hotspot: 220 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
25.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Aug18 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

283112345678910111213141516171819

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
58km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.2 mm on 22 Sept.

This area had burned before

61% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,176 ha in 2016, 21,298 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Bannach 4,031 inhabitants where it started
    36,074 ha reached on 28 Aug
    12 %
  2. Cumaru do Norte 14,036 inhabitants
    334 ha reached on 16 Sept
    0.0 %
  3. Ourilândia do Norte 32,467 inhabitants
    92 ha reached on 18 Sept
    0.0 %

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)
21 Aug 35.6 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Aug 34.5 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
23 Aug 34.2 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.3 mm High 38
24 Aug 30.6 °C 47 % 34 km/h 0.5 mm High 28
25 Aug 32.9 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
26 Aug 32.7 °C 45 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
27 Aug 33.8 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
28 Aug 32.7 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
29 Aug 33.9 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Aug 33.6 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
31 Aug 34.2 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Sept 34.3 °C 21 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Sept 34.2 °C 24 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Sept 33.4 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Sept 34.4 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Sept 35.8 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Sept 35.2 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Sept 36.0 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Sept 35.7 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Sept 35.5 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Sept 35.2 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Sept 36.4 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Sept 35.7 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Sept 35.0 °C 18 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Sept 35.8 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Sept 35.4 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
16 Sept 35.6 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Sept 35.6 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Sept 35.8 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 41
19 Sept after 34.8 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Sept after 35.4 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Sept after 32.7 °C 48 % 29 km/h 0.4 mm High 27
22 Sept after 30.5 °C 56 % 25 km/h 3.2 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Aug 2020
After · 25 Sept 2020

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 · 1,798Every 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 Bannach fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 August 2020 and 18 September 2020: 22 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 36,268 hectares (362.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Bannach (36,074 ha, 12 %); Cumaru do Norte (334 ha, 0.0 %); Ourilândia do Norte (92 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.