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Corrente fire, August 2018 Corrente

Out · last detection 30 Aug 2018, 16:24 UTC

The fire started on 12 August 2018 in Corrente, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,472 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 640th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 803 with a page). Number 214 in Brazil in 2018, of 291.

Burnt area
3,472ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
19days
12 Aug 2018 – 30 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
12 Aug
2018
Heat detections
217
in a single hotspot: 36 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Aug 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Aug30 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

12131415161819202122232425262730

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
48km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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.

What happened to each town

  1. Corrente 27,278 inhabitants where it started
    3,494 ha reached on 12 Aug
    1.1 %

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)
12 Aug 37.4 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Aug 35.8 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Aug 33.2 °C 41 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
15 Aug 34.3 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Aug 36.1 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
17 Aug 34.3 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Aug 34.3 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Aug 34.7 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Aug 34.9 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Aug 34.5 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Aug 34.9 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Aug 35.9 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Aug 36.0 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Aug 36.6 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Aug 36.9 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Aug 35.1 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Aug 33.8 °C 30 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Aug 33.2 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Aug 33.3 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Aug after 33.5 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Sept after 33.7 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Sept after 35.8 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Sept after 36.0 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Sept after 36.6 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Sept after 34.5 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Sept after 33.5 °C 41 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
7 Sept after 34.7 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Sept after 35.0 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
9 Sept after 34.3 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Sept after 35.5 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Sept after 35.4 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Sept after 36.1 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Sept after 35.2 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Sept after 35.5 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Aug 2018
After · 6 Sept 2018

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 · 217Every 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 Corrente fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 August 2018 and 30 August 2018: 19 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 3,472 hectares (34.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Corrente (3,494 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.