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Calçoene fire, 28 October 2023 Calçoene

Out · last detection 20 Nov 2023, 16:54 UTC

The fire started on 28 October 2023 in Calçoene, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,633 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 2th largest in Amapá since 2016 (of 41 with a page). Number 40 in Brazil in 2023, of 431.

Burnt area
12,633ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
23days
28 Oct 2023 – 19 Nov 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
28 Oct
2023
Heat detections
410
in a single hotspot: 68 MW
Danger at start
6
Low · FWI index
Energy released
2.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Nov 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Oct19 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

282930311234567891011121314151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
43km/h · peak gust
50%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 22 Nov.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Calçoene 10,612 inhabitants where it started
    12,728 ha reached on 28 Oct
    0.9 %

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)
28 Oct 33.1 °C 57 % 36 km/h 1.4 mm Low 6
29 Oct 33.7 °C 58 % 37 km/h 0.7 mm Low 10
30 Oct 33.0 °C 61 % 33 km/h 2.9 mm Very low 3
31 Oct 33.7 °C 56 % 33 km/h 0.8 mm Low 7
1 Nov 32.9 °C 63 % 36 km/h 1.0 mm Low 7
2 Nov 32.5 °C 66 % 36 km/h 3.3 mm Very low 3
3 Nov 32.2 °C 66 % 34 km/h 2.1 mm Very low 3
4 Nov 33.5 °C 56 % 37 km/h 0.6 mm Low 7
5 Nov 31.7 °C 65 % 36 km/h 0.8 mm Low 7
6 Nov 32.7 °C 59 % 40 km/h 2.3 mm Very low 4
7 Nov 31.4 °C 70 % 37 km/h 3.1 mm Very low 2
8 Nov 33.2 °C 50 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
9 Nov 33.3 °C 52 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Low 10
10 Nov 32.7 °C 62 % 43 km/h 4.8 mm Very low 2
11 Nov 32.5 °C 51 % 42 km/h 1.7 mm Very low 4
12 Nov 32.9 °C 54 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
13 Nov 32.4 °C 62 % 32 km/h 1.0 mm Very low 5
14 Nov 33.2 °C 63 % 34 km/h 2.2 mm Very low 2
15 Nov 32.8 °C 56 % 40 km/h 1.6 mm Very low 4
16 Nov 33.5 °C 57 % 35 km/h 1.2 mm Very low 5
17 Nov 30.4 °C 74 % 30 km/h 3.3 mm Very low 1
18 Nov 32.4 °C 61 % 37 km/h 1.2 mm Very low 3
19 Nov 33.2 °C 55 % 32 km/h 0.7 mm Low 6
20 Nov after 33.2 °C 53 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm Low 9
21 Nov after 33.7 °C 56 % 34 km/h 1.2 mm Low 6
22 Nov after 32.4 °C 64 % 38 km/h 1.5 mm Very low 5

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Oct 2023
After · 26 Nov 2023

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 18 November 2023 the air beside the fire reached 33 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak33 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1052 µg/m³
Optical depth0.37
26272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122
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 · 410Every 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 Calçoene fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 October 2023 and 19 November 2023: 23 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 12,633 hectares (126.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Calçoene (12,728 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 50 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 10, class Low.
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.