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Barra do Corda fire, June 2026 Barra do Corda

Out · last detection 4 Jul 2026, 16:18 UTC

The fire started on 6 June 2026 in Barra do Corda, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,763 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 177th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 608 with a page). Number 276 in Brazil in 2026, of 761.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Barra do Corda · 2020Barra do Corda · 2018Jenipapo dos Vieiras · 2017Barra do Corda · 2025

Burnt area
5,763ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
29days
6 Jun 2026 – 4 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
6 Jun
2026
Heat detections
356
in a single hotspot: 673 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Average daily power
338MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Jun4 Jul
4 Jul 2026

How it evolved, day by day

6 Jun 2026 · 190 MW · 13 7 Jun 2026 · 68 MW · 15 9 Jun 2026 · 239 MW · 24 10 Jun 2026 · 2 MW · 1 11 Jun 2026 · 17 MW · 2 12 Jun 2026 · 5 MW · 3 13 Jun 2026 · 14 MW · 7 15 Jun 2026 · 603 MW · 12 16 Jun 2026 · 306 MW · 15 17 Jun 2026 · 105 MW · 14 18 Jun 2026 · 21 MW · 7 19 Jun 2026 · 11 MW · 2 20 Jun 2026 · 1,553 MW · 28 21 Jun 2026 · 28 MW · 12 22 Jun 2026 · 35 MW · 1 23 Jun 2026 · 170 MW · 31 24 Jun 2026 · 24 MW · 4 25 Jun 2026 · 423 MW · 16 26 Jun 2026 · 1,758 MW · 25 27 Jun 2026 · 104 MW · 17 1 Jul 2026 · 488 MW · 35 2 Jul 2026 · 1,704 MW · 45 3 Jul 2026 · 230 MW · 26 4 Jul 2026 · 5 MW · 1
6 Jun 11 Jun 16 Jun 20 Jun 24 Jun 26 Jun 1 Jul

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
44km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

61% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 114 ha in 2017, 93 ha in 2018, 2,472 ha in 2020, 1,970 ha in 2022, 1,063 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,542 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 3.6% of the area of London (58 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. Barra do Corda 84,532 inhabitants where it started
    5,804 ha reached on 6 Jun
    1.1 %

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 area0.44 ha
Residents≈ 40

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.44 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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
6 Jun 33.1 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Jun 33.6 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
8 Jun 33.6 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Jun 34.6 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Jun 33.9 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Jun 34.0 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Jun 34.4 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Jun 34.3 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Jun 34.5 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Jun 34.6 °C 38 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Jun 35.1 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Jun 33.7 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
18 Jun 31.7 °C 53 % 34 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 15
19 Jun 33.4 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
20 Jun 34.0 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 Jun 33.4 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 Jun 33.2 °C 43 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
23 Jun 34.3 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Jun 32.9 °C 45 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 Jun 34.8 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Jun 33.0 °C 39 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Jun 30.4 °C 52 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
28 Jun 32.2 °C 44 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Jun 31.9 °C 42 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Jun 31.5 °C 46 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Jul 32.6 °C 41 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Jul 33.0 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Jul 33.4 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Jul 33.6 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Jul after 34.0 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Jul after 34.1 °C 40 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Jul after 34.1 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 Jul after 33.9 °C 42 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Jul after 32.6 °C 47 % 36 km/h 0.4 mm High 28
10 Jul after 33.0 °C 43 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Jul after 33.7 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Jul after 34.6 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
13 Jul after 32.9 °C 51 % 27 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 19
14 Jul after 30.7 °C 55 % 32 km/h 0.4 mm High 21

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 May 2026
After · 11 Jul 2026

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 4 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 62 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 35: 2.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak62 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1063 µg/m³
Optical depth0.42
4567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829301234567
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 · 356Every 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 do Corda fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 June 2026 and 4 July 2026: 29 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 5,763 hectares (57.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Barra do Corda (5,804 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very high.
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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 356 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.