Burned area
satellite only3,642ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 18 Aug 2025 – 30 Aug 2025
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
BR · Brazil · –
Benedito Leite fire, 18 August 2025 Benedito Leite
Out · last detection 31 Aug 2025, 17:05 UTC
The fire started on 18 August 2025 in Benedito Leite, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,642 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 362th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 531 with a page). Number 409 in Brazil in 2025, of 526.
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
18 Aug 2025 to 30 Aug 2025: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 31 Aug 2025, 17:05 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 only18 Aug 2025
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 18 Aug 2025
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only169
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 92 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 18 Aug 2025 – 30 Aug 2025
+− 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 only1,122MW
Total radiative power on 21 August 2025; hotspots that day: 46.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 21 Aug 2025
+− 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
model48.5FWI · very high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 6.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 18 Aug 2025, 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
model35.8°C · 22% RH
High of 35.8 °C and minimum humidity of 22% on 25 August 2025; gusts of 46 km/h on 22 August 2025.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 18 Aug 2025 – 30 Aug 2025
- 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.
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
-
logLast day with fire: 24 August 2025 → 30 August 2025.
-
logStart date: 19 August 2025 → 18 August 2025.
-
· 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
- 3,642 ha
- Dates
- 18 Aug 2025 – 30 Aug 2025
- Name
- Benedito Leite
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/benedito-leite-2025-08-5?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 benedito-leite-2025-08-5.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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-08-18 | 0 | 0 | 34.4 | 23.4 | 26 | 16 | 35.6 | 0 | 48.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-08-19 | 8 | 38 | 33.7 | 21.8 | 25 | 21.2 | 44.6 | 0 | 55.7 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-08-20 | 4 | 23 | 33.1 | 21.3 | 24 | 20.8 | 45.4 | 0 | 49.8 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-08-21 | 46 | 1,122 | 33.7 | 21.2 | 27 | 20 | 43.6 | 0 | 51.5 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-08-22 | 41 | 401 | 34.3 | 22.4 | 27 | 20.7 | 45.7 | 0 | 55.7 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-08-23 | 38 | 571 | 35 | 22.8 | 23 | 20.9 | 43.6 | 0 | 52.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-08-24 | 26 | 81 | 34.9 | 22.3 | 23 | 20 | 42.8 | 0 | 51.9 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-08-25 | 0 | 0 | 35.8 | 22.1 | 22 | 19.2 | 41.4 | 0 | 52 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-08-26 | 1 | 13 | 34.5 | 23.5 | 26 | 18.7 | 39.6 | 0 | 55.5 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-08-27 | 1 | 12 | 35 | 23.4 | 23 | 16.2 | 38.5 | 0 | 51 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-08-28 | 3 | 27 | 35.7 | 22.7 | 22 | 15.4 | 34.6 | 0 | 51.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-08-29 | 0 | 0 | 35.6 | 23.4 | 22 | 18.3 | 38.5 | 0 | 50.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-08-30 | 0 | 0 | 35.4 | 23.7 | 21 | 18.7 | 40.7 | 0 | 54.7 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-08-31 | 1 | 4 | 35.1 | 22.4 | 22 | 20.7 | 45 | 0 | 58.1 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-09-01 | 0 | 0 | 35.4 | 24 | 21 | 22.4 | 47.5 | 0 | 62 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-09-02 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 23.7 | 24 | 24 | 50.4 | 0 | 64.5 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-09-03 | 0 | 0 | 34.4 | 23.4 | 23 | 22.4 | 48.2 | 0 | 62.8 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-09-04 | 0 | 0 | 34.7 | 22.5 | 24 | 22.3 | 49 | 0 | 62.1 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-09-05 | 0 | 0 | 34.6 | 22 | 25 | 21.6 | 46.1 | 0 | 60 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-09-06 | 0 | 0 | 35.3 | 22.6 | 26 | 19.3 | 42.8 | 0 | 56.2 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-09-07 | 0 | 0 | 35.9 | 23.9 | 24 | 20.1 | 42.5 | 0 | 52.4 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-09-08 | 0 | 0 | 35.7 | 23.7 | 18 | 21.3 | 44.6 | 0 | 60.4 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-09-09 | 0 | 0 | 35.3 | 23.8 | 20 | 20.7 | 43.9 | 0 | 58.4 | extremo | 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
- 3,642ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 18 Aug 2025 – 30 Aug 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 18 Aug
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 169
- in a single hotspot: 92 MW
- Danger at start
- 48
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 229MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
18 Aug30 Aug
31 Aug 2025
How it evolved, day by day
19 Aug
21 Aug
23 Aug
26 Aug
28 Aug
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
46km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity
It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,020 ha in 2017, 2,275 ha in 2019, 146 ha in 2020, 2,053 ha in 2021, 167 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,197 ha that had burned before.
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
-
3,665 ha reached on 19 Aug2.0 %
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 2025Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Aug | 34.4 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 19 Aug | 33.7 °C | 25 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 20 Aug | 33.1 °C | 24 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 21 Aug | 33.7 °C | 27 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 22 Aug | 34.3 °C | 27 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 23 Aug | 35.0 °C | 23 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 24 Aug | 34.9 °C | 23 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 25 Aug | 35.8 °C | 22 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 26 Aug | 34.5 °C | 26 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 27 Aug | 35.0 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 28 Aug | 35.7 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 29 Aug | 35.6 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 30 Aug | 35.4 °C | 21 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 31 Aug after | 35.1 °C | 22 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 1 Sept after | 35.4 °C | 21 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 2 Sept after | 35.0 °C | 24 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 3 Sept after | 34.4 °C | 23 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 4 Sept after | 34.7 °C | 24 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 5 Sept after | 34.6 °C | 25 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 6 Sept after | 35.3 °C | 26 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 7 Sept after | 35.9 °C | 24 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 8 Sept after | 35.7 °C | 18 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 9 Sept after | 35.3 °C | 20 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 48.5, a minimum humidity of 26% and 6 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 16.
FWI at the start
48.5
Minimum humidity
26 %
Days without rain
6
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Benedito Leite fire, 18 August 2025
3,642 ha
13 days
FWI 48.5
Min. humidity 26 %
São Félix de Balsas fire, August 2024
8,264 ha
20 days
FWI 48.7
Min. humidity 27 %
58 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
São Félix de Balsas fire, August 2024
8,779 ha
18 days
FWI 50.2
Min. humidity 24 %
33 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
São Raimundo das Mangabeiras fire, August 2024
3,286 ha
5 days
FWI 51.2
Min. humidity 26 %
126 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Loreto fire, August 2018
3,071 ha
11 days
FWI 52.9
Min. humidity 26 %
43 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.5 mm on 5 Sept.
Tasso Fragoso fire, October 2017
11,044 ha
9 days
FWI 49.9
Min. humidity 25 %
157 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.6 mm on 28 Oct.
What happened to them
- 13 days
- median duration
- 3,911 ha
- median area
- 6 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- 1.6 mm
- rain at the end (median; 10 of 16 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (3,642 ha against a median of 3,911 ha) and lasted 13 days, against 13 days.
In 6 of 16, 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 1.6 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
46km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 30 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 10 of 16, with a median of 1.6 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 · 11 Aug 2025
After · 6 Sept 2025
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 25 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak23 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1023 µg/m³
Optical depth0.27
WHO 15
17 Aug20 Aug23 Aug26 Aug
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 · 169Every 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 Benedito Leite fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 August 2025 to 30 August 2025 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 August 2025 to 24 August 2025.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,642 hectares (36.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Benedito Leite (3,665 ha, 2.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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: 16. Their median duration was 13 days and their median area 3,911 ha; 6 % went past 10,000 ha. In 6 of 16, 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 1.6 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 24 August 2025 → 30 August 2025.
- Start date: 19 August 2025 → 18 August 2025.
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 19 August 2025 to 24 August 2025. 169 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.
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.