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BR · Brazil · –

Bocaina fire, October 2024 Bocaina, Sussuapara, Santo Antônio de Lisboa

Out · last detection 6 Nov 2024, 15:33 UTC

The fire started on 21 October 2024 in Bocaina, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,866 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 312th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 665 with a page). Number 707 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Burnt area
4,866ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
21 Oct 2024 – 6 Nov 2024
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
21 Oct
2024
Heat detections
145
in a single hotspot: 114 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
139MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Oct6 Nov
6 Nov 2024

How it evolved, day by day

21 Oct 2024 · 30 MW · 3 22 Oct 2024 · 57 MW · 5 23 Oct 2024 · 103 MW · 5 24 Oct 2024 · 4 MW · 1 25 Oct 2024 · 29 MW · 4 26 Oct 2024 · 44 MW · 7 27 Oct 2024 · 1,221 MW · 46 28 Oct 2024 · 120 MW · 16 29 Oct 2024 · 418 MW · 30 30 Oct 2024 · 88 MW · 17 31 Oct 2024 · 58 MW · 3 1 Nov 2024 · 6 MW · 1 3 Nov 2024 · 10 MW · 1 4 Nov 2024 · 4 MW · 3 5 Nov 2024 · 19 MW · 2 6 Nov 2024 · 10 MW · 1
21 Oct 27 Oct 3 Nov

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
49km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 300 ha in 2019, 2,377 ha in 2020, 279 ha in 2021.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 3.1% of the area of London (49 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. Bocaina 4,078 inhabitants where it started
    2,400 ha reached on 22 Oct
    9.2 %
  2. Sussuapara 6,220 inhabitants
    1,908 ha reached on 22 Oct
    9.2 %
  3. 590 ha reached on 21 Oct
    1.5 %

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 area19 ha
Residents≈ 2,500

Inside the perimeter there were about 19 hectares of built-up land and about 2,500 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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 55 % of the area in Brazil

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
21 Oct 37.2 °C 27 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Oct 38.8 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
23 Oct 38.4 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Oct 38.7 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
25 Oct 38.9 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Oct 39.8 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
27 Oct 40.2 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
28 Oct 38.6 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
29 Oct 38.6 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
30 Oct 39.4 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Oct 37.5 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Nov 38.3 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 50
2 Nov 38.9 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
3 Nov 38.7 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
4 Nov 38.9 °C 22 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
5 Nov 38.1 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Nov 38.8 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
7 Nov after 37.8 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
8 Nov after 39.4 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
9 Nov after 38.4 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
10 Nov after 39.2 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
11 Nov after 35.8 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.3 mm High 36
12 Nov after 32.6 °C 39 % 23 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
13 Nov after 36.7 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 47
14 Nov after 37.5 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Nov after 38.2 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Nov after 37.9 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 56.2, a minimum humidity of 27% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2024: 2.

FWI at the start 56.2
Minimum humidity 27 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Nazaré do Piauí fire, September 2024
4,939 ha 18 days FWI 59.6 Min. humidity 25 % 170 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 2. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.

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
49km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 6 Nov, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain.

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 2024.
  • 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.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Oct 2024
After · 13 Nov 2024

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 19 October 2024 the air beside the fire reached 20 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak20 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1029 µg/m³
Optical depth0.60
19 Oct23 Oct27 Oct31 Oct4 Nov
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 · 145Every 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 Bocaina fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 21 October 2024 to 6 November 2024 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 October 2024 to 1 November 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,866 hectares (48.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Bocaina (2,400 ha, 9.2 %); Sussuapara (1,908 ha, 9.2 %); Santo Antônio de Lisboa (590 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.2 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 73, class Very 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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 1 November 2024 → 6 November 2024.

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
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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 21 October 2024 to 1 November 2024. 145 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.