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Canaã dos Carajás fire, 25 July 2016 Canaã dos Carajás

Out · last detection 7 Aug 2016, 16:45 UTC

The fire started on 25 July 2016 in Canaã dos Carajás, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,357 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 794th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 957 with a page). Number 536 in Brazil in 2016, of 648.

Burnt area
3,357ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
25 Jul 2016 – 7 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
25 Jul
2016
Heat detections
140
in a single hotspot: 96 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
102MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jul7 Aug
7 Aug 2016

How it evolved, day by day

25 Jul 2016 · 6 MW · 3 26 Jul 2016 · 32 MW · 6 27 Jul 2016 · 72 MW · 15 28 Jul 2016 · 530 MW · 21 29 Jul 2016 · 41 MW · 9 30 Jul 2016 · 130 MW · 8 31 Jul 2016 · 57 MW · 20 1 Aug 2016 · 42 MW · 13 2 Aug 2016 · 53 MW · 11 3 Aug 2016 · 10 MW · 3 5 Aug 2016 · 8 MW · 4 6 Aug 2016 · 231 MW · 17 7 Aug 2016 · 110 MW · 10
25 Jul 28 Jul 31 Jul 3 Aug 7 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

35°high
45km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 days 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.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.1% of the area of London (34 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. Canaã dos Carajás 77,079 inhabitants where it started
    3,379 ha reached on 25 Jul
    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 2015
Built-up area0.46 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.46 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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.

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)
25 Jul 33.7 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Jul 33.7 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Jul 34.2 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Jul 33.7 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Jul 34.3 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Jul 33.1 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
31 Jul 32.8 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
1 Aug 33.3 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Aug 33.5 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Aug 34.1 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Aug 34.1 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Aug 34.7 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Aug 34.0 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Aug 35.2 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Aug after 35.2 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Aug after 35.0 °C 36 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Aug after 35.3 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Aug after 35.4 °C 36 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Aug after 34.5 °C 41 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Aug after 34.2 °C 49 % 35 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
14 Aug after 32.8 °C 48 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Aug after 34.2 °C 43 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Aug after 34.8 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Aug after 35.5 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 46.8, a minimum humidity of 33% and 40 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 24.

FWI at the start 46.8
Minimum humidity 33 %
Days without rain 40
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Bom Jesus do Tocantins fire, July 2020
5,834 ha 29 days FWI 45.3 Min. humidity 33 % 221 km away, in 2020

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

What happened to them

16 days
median duration
4,696 ha
median area
8 %
went past 10,000 ha
1.9 mm
rain at the end (median; 9 of 24 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (3,357 ha against a median of 4,696 ha) and lasted 14 days, against 16 days.

In 15 of 24, 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 1.9 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
45km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 7 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 9 of 24, with a median of 1.9 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.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Jul 2016
After · 14 Aug 2016

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 · 140Every 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 Canaã dos Carajás fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 25 July 2016 to 7 August 2016 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 July 2016 to 2 August 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,357 hectares (33.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Canaã dos Carajás (3,379 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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: 24. Their median duration was 16 days and their median area 4,696 ha; 8 % went past 10,000 ha. In 15 of 24, 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 1.9 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 2 August 2016 → 7 August 2016.

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 25 July 2016 to 2 August 2016. 140 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 2015, 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.