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Coroatá fire, October 2017 Coroatá

Out · last detection 25 Oct 2017, 16:20 UTC

The fire started on 20 October 2017 in Coroatá, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,754 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 252th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 607 with a page). Number 513 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
4,754ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
20 Oct 2017 – 25 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
20 Oct
2017
Heat detections
167
in a single hotspot: 86 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Oct25 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

202122232425

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
53km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 31 Oct.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Coroatá 59,566 inhabitants where it started
    4,784 ha reached on 20 Oct
    2.1 %

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)
14 Oct 36.5 °C 39 % 45 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
15 Oct 35.8 °C 42 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Oct 35.1 °C 46 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Oct 34.9 °C 47 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Oct 35.6 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Oct 35.3 °C 42 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Oct 37.1 °C 33 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Oct 37.0 °C 34 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Oct 36.9 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Oct 36.6 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Oct 37.0 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Oct 37.5 °C 35 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Oct after 36.9 °C 36 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Oct after 36.0 °C 40 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
28 Oct after 35.2 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Oct after 36.0 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
30 Oct after 34.5 °C 47 % 38 km/h 0.8 mm High 26
31 Oct after 31.3 °C 55 % 35 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Oct 2017
After · 1 Nov 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 · 167Every 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 Coroatá fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 October 2017 and 25 October 2017: 6 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 4,754 hectares (47.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Coroatá (4,784 ha, 2.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very high.
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.