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Crixás fire, September 2019 Crixás, Araguapaz, Faina

Out · last detection 25 Sept 2019, 17:32 UTC

The fire started on 6 September 2019 in Crixás, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 58,444 hectares from heat detections, spread across 5 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Goiás since 2016 (of 548 with a page). Number 8 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.

Burnt area
58,444ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
19days
6 Sept 2019 – 24 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
5
municipalities
Started on
6 Sept
2019
Heat detections
2,046
in a single hotspot: 149 MW
Danger at start
68
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
16.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Sept24 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

678910111213141516171819202122232425

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
51km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 26 Sept.

This area had burned before

33% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 19,292 ha in 2016, 157 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Crixás 17,065 inhabitants where it started
    29,666 ha reached on 6 Sept
    6.3 %
  2. Araguapaz 7,153 inhabitants
    26,468 ha reached on 12 Sept
    12 %
  3. Faina 7,070 inhabitants
    2,023 ha reached on 15 Sept
    1.0 %
  4. Rubiataba 19,788 inhabitants
    472 ha reached on 17 Sept
    0.6 %
  5. Nova América 2,337 inhabitants
    204 ha reached on 16 Sept
    1.0 %

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)
6 Sept 36.7 °C 11 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
7 Sept 35.4 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
8 Sept 35.8 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
9 Sept 35.6 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
10 Sept 37.3 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Sept 37.8 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Sept 37.0 °C 16 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Sept 39.0 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Sept 39.1 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
15 Sept 38.1 °C 14 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
16 Sept 37.6 °C 12 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
17 Sept 37.8 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
18 Sept 37.5 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Sept 38.0 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Sept 38.0 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Sept 39.0 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Sept 38.3 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
23 Sept 37.8 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 Sept 37.2 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
25 Sept after 35.9 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Sept after 27.4 °C 44 % 42 km/h 2.8 mm Moderate 13

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Aug 2019
After · 1 Oct 2019

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 · 2,046Every 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 Crixás fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 September 2019 and 24 September 2019: 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 58,444 hectares (584.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 5 municipalities: Crixás (29,666 ha, 6.3 %); Araguapaz (26,468 ha, 12 %); Faina (2,023 ha, 1.0 %); Rubiataba (472 ha, 0.6 %); Nova América (204 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.1 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, 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.

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.

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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.