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Benedito Leite fire, 10 September 2017 Benedito Leite, São Félix de Balsas, Uruçuí

Out · last detection 21 Sept 2017, 16:57 UTC

The fire started on 10 September 2017 in Benedito Leite, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,276 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 156th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 607 with a page). Number 330 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
6,276ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
10 Sept 2017 – 21 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
10 Sept
2017
Heat detections
215
in a single hotspot: 73 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Sept21 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

101112131415161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
49km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Benedito Leite 5,469 inhabitants where it started
    5,587 ha reached on 10 Sept
    3.1 %
  2. São Félix de Balsas 4,402 inhabitants
    728 ha reached on 12 Sept
    0.4 %
  3. Uruçuí 25,203 inhabitants
    3 ha
    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)
10 Sept 36.9 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Sept 36.8 °C 27 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
12 Sept 36.8 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Sept 36.7 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Sept 37.7 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Sept 36.7 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Sept 35.7 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Sept 36.6 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Sept 37.1 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Sept 38.4 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
20 Sept 37.8 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Sept 37.8 °C 22 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Sept after 37.1 °C 25 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Sept after 36.9 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Sept after 37.0 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Sept after 37.0 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Sept after 38.4 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Sept after 38.4 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Sept after 38.9 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Sept after 38.8 °C 27 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
30 Sept after 38.5 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
1 Oct after 38.5 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Sept 2017
After · 28 Sept 2017

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 · 215Every 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 Benedito Leite fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 September 2017 and 21 September 2017: 12 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 6,276 hectares (62.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Benedito Leite (5,587 ha, 3.1 %); São Félix de Balsas (728 ha, 0.4 %); Uruçuí (3 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.4 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 49 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.

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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.