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Barra fire, August 2016 Barra

Out · last detection 21 Sept 2016, 15:59 UTC

The fire started on 10 August 2016 in Barra, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 43 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 33,632 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 12th largest in Bahia since 2016 (of 466 with a page). Number 5 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

Burnt area
33,632ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
43days
10 Aug 2016 – 21 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
10 Aug
2016
Heat detections
1,723
in a single hotspot: 330 MW
Danger at start
38
High · FWI index
Energy released
33.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Aug21 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1112131416171819202122232425262728293031123456789101112131415161718192021

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
46km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.9 mm on 26 Sept.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Barra 51,092 inhabitants where it started
    33,842 ha reached on 11 Aug
    2.9 %

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)
6 Aug 31.1 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
7 Aug 31.6 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Aug 32.2 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
9 Aug 33.2 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Aug 33.6 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Aug 34.9 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Aug 34.5 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Aug 33.0 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Aug 33.1 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Aug 33.7 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Aug 35.5 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Aug 36.8 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Aug 35.5 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Aug 33.8 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Aug 33.5 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Aug 34.7 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Aug 36.2 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Aug 34.5 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 Aug 30.7 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Aug 29.1 °C 39 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Aug 32.4 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Aug 31.9 °C 35 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Aug 32.0 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Aug 32.8 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Aug 34.3 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Aug 34.1 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Sept 34.2 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Sept 33.1 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Sept 31.6 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Sept 33.0 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Sept 33.1 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Sept 33.7 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Sept 33.9 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Sept 34.5 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Sept 34.4 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 Sept 33.2 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Sept 32.9 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
12 Sept 34.2 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Sept 34.8 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Sept 34.8 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Sept 35.6 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Sept 37.0 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Sept 35.6 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
18 Sept 34.9 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Sept 34.6 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
20 Sept 36.7 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Sept 36.0 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
22 Sept after 34.1 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Sept after 34.4 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Sept after 35.0 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Sept after 35.1 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Sept after 32.7 °C 39 % 27 km/h 8.9 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Aug 2016
After · 28 Sept 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 · 1,723Every 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 Barra fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 August 2016 and 21 September 2016: 43 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 33,632 hectares (336.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Barra (33,842 ha, 2.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.