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Crixás fire, August 2021 Crixás, Araguapaz, Faina

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2021, 16:24 UTC

The fire started on 26 August 2021 in Crixás, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 32,436 hectares from heat detections, spread across 6 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Goiás since 2016 (of 548 with a page). Number 24 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Burnt area
32,436ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
28days
26 Aug 2021 – 22 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
6
municipalities
Started on
26 Aug
2021
Heat detections
1,279
in a single hotspot: 109 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
8.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Aug22 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

26272829303112345678910111213151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
51km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 14,081 ha in 2016, 27,432 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 28,604 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Crixás 17,065 inhabitants where it started
    16,220 ha reached on 26 Aug
    3.5 %
  2. Araguapaz 7,153 inhabitants
    15,113 ha reached on 9 Sept
    6.8 %
  3. Faina 7,070 inhabitants
    830 ha reached on 21 Sept
    0.4 %
  4. Rubiataba 19,788 inhabitants
    282 ha reached on 9 Sept
    0.4 %
  5. Nova América 2,337 inhabitants
    197 ha reached on 5 Sept
    0.9 %
  6. Morro Agudo de Goiás 2,456 inhabitants
    17 ha
    0.1 %

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)
26 Aug 37.0 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Aug 36.7 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
28 Aug 36.2 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
29 Aug 35.7 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
30 Aug 34.6 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
31 Aug 33.5 °C 22 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
1 Sept 32.7 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 Sept 33.0 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
3 Sept 35.2 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Sept 36.1 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Sept 36.3 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Sept 38.0 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Sept 38.3 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Sept 34.7 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 43
9 Sept 36.7 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Sept 37.7 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
11 Sept 39.2 °C 13 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
12 Sept 36.7 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Sept 37.9 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Sept 36.0 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Sept 37.9 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Sept 39.7 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
17 Sept 38.3 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
18 Sept 37.8 °C 9 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
19 Sept 38.6 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
20 Sept 39.6 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
21 Sept 38.9 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Sept 39.2 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Sept after 39.1 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Sept after 34.6 °C 33 % 35 km/h 1.7 mm High 29
25 Sept after 34.4 °C 36 % 44 km/h 4.5 mm Moderate 16
26 Sept after 31.7 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
27 Sept after 34.2 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Sept after 35.0 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Sept after 36.1 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Sept after 34.9 °C 32 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Oct after 34.9 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Oct after 33.9 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
3 Oct after 33.7 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
4 Oct after 35.4 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Oct after 35.2 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
6 Oct after 38.1 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Oct after 37.2 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Aug 2021
After · 29 Sept 2021

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 · 1,279Every 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 26 August 2021 and 22 September 2021: 28 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 32,436 hectares (324.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 6 municipalities: Crixás (16,220 ha, 3.5 %); Araguapaz (15,113 ha, 6.8 %); Faina (830 ha, 0.4 %); Rubiataba (282 ha, 0.4 %); Nova América (197 ha, 0.9 %); Morro Agudo de Goiás (17 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.7 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, 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.