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Cumaru do Norte fire, 10 August 2017 Cumaru do Norte, São Félix do Xingu, Santana do Araguaia

Out · last detection 7 Oct 2017, 04:21 UTC

The fire started on 10 August 2017 in Cumaru do Norte, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 58 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 215,807 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 3th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 1106 with a page). The largest in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Compare with…

Suggestions: São Félix do Xingu · 2016Cumaru do Norte · 2016Cumaru do Norte · 2020São Félix do Xingu · 2022

Burnt area
215,807ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
58days
10 Aug 2017 – 6 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
10 Aug
2017
Heat detections
9,986
in a single hotspot: 453 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Average daily power
2.1GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Aug6 Oct
7 Oct 2017

How it evolved, day by day

10 Aug 2017 · 54 MW · 2 11 Aug 2017 · 2 MW · 2 12 Aug 2017 · 2 MW · 3 13 Aug 2017 · 4 MW · 4 15 Aug 2017 · 4 MW · 4 16 Aug 2017 · 4 MW · 1 17 Aug 2017 · 605 MW · 16 18 Aug 2017 · 80 MW · 24 19 Aug 2017 · 617 MW · 45 20 Aug 2017 · 170 MW · 25 21 Aug 2017 · 537 MW · 13 22 Aug 2017 · 439 MW · 68 23 Aug 2017 · 513 MW · 51 24 Aug 2017 · 1,670 MW · 156 25 Aug 2017 · 1,168 MW · 125 26 Aug 2017 · 2,762 MW · 152 27 Aug 2017 · 1,897 MW · 138 28 Aug 2017 · 8,203 MW · 348 29 Aug 2017 · 2,268 MW · 310 30 Aug 2017 · 3,720 MW · 246 31 Aug 2017 · 1,934 MW · 243 1 Sept 2017 · 1,008 MW · 126 2 Sept 2017 · 311 MW · 59 3 Sept 2017 · 1,274 MW · 231 4 Sept 2017 · 1,167 MW · 276 5 Sept 2017 · 2,470 MW · 324 6 Sept 2017 · 1,714 MW · 178 7 Sept 2017 · 1,766 MW · 115 8 Sept 2017 · 1,715 MW · 232 9 Sept 2017 · 1,030 MW · 185 10 Sept 2017 · 2,187 MW · 231 11 Sept 2017 · 15,418 MW · 429 12 Sept 2017 · 12,339 MW · 427 13 Sept 2017 · 15,074 MW · 1160 14 Sept 2017 · 3,500 MW · 792 15 Sept 2017 · 5,854 MW · 643 16 Sept 2017 · 4,049 MW · 328 17 Sept 2017 · 3,062 MW · 251 18 Sept 2017 · 2,284 MW · 239 19 Sept 2017 · 560 MW · 161 20 Sept 2017 · 4,875 MW · 481 21 Sept 2017 · 3 MW · 1 22 Sept 2017 · 2,229 MW · 151 23 Sept 2017 · 5,901 MW · 306 24 Sept 2017 · 467 MW · 97 25 Sept 2017 · 812 MW · 179 26 Sept 2017 · 372 MW · 86 27 Sept 2017 · 1,068 MW · 61 28 Sept 2017 · 174 MW · 28 29 Sept 2017 · 51 MW · 26 30 Sept 2017 · 689 MW · 126 1 Oct 2017 · 107 MW · 12 2 Oct 2017 · 130 MW · 19 4 Oct 2017 · 18 MW · 2 5 Oct 2017 · 256 MW · 12 6 Oct 2017 · 135 MW · 35 7 Oct 2017 · 2 MW · 1
10 Aug 20 Aug 29 Aug 7 Sept 11 Sept 16 Sept 25 Sept 5 Oct

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
46km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 8 Oct.

This area had burned before

10% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 23,086 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

20 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.4 times the area of London (2,158 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. Cumaru do Norte 14,036 inhabitants where it started
    150,501 ha reached on 10 Aug
    8.8 %
  2. São Félix do Xingu 65,418 inhabitants
    66,837 ha reached on 16 Aug
    0.8 %
  3. Santana do Araguaia 32,413 inhabitants
    336 ha reached on 16 Sept
    0.0 %

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 area5.6 ha
Residents≈ 300

Inside the perimeter there were about 5.6 hectares of built-up land and about 300 residents (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)
10 Aug 35.9 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Aug 34.2 °C 32 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Aug 34.6 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Aug 33.7 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Aug 35.3 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Aug 36.3 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Aug 34.6 °C 33 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Aug 34.4 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Aug 35.6 °C 28 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Aug 36.7 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Aug 36.4 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Aug 36.0 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Aug 35.9 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Aug 34.3 °C 29 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 Aug 34.4 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Aug 34.8 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Aug 34.9 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Aug 35.6 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Aug 35.8 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Aug 36.3 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Aug 35.5 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
31 Aug 36.6 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Sept 35.4 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Sept 34.5 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Sept 34.7 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Sept 33.1 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Sept 34.2 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Sept 35.4 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Sept 35.6 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 Sept 34.3 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Sept 35.5 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Sept 36.2 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Sept 37.0 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Sept 36.4 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Sept 35.0 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Sept 36.5 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Sept 36.6 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Sept 36.1 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Sept 35.3 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Sept 35.8 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Sept 37.4 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Sept 36.1 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Sept 33.7 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Sept 36.0 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Sept 35.8 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Sept 35.6 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Sept 36.6 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Sept 35.3 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Sept 35.0 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Sept 35.5 °C 36 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Sept 35.2 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
30 Sept 34.7 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
1 Oct 31.9 °C 49 % 33 km/h 5.6 mm Very low 5
2 Oct 34.6 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
3 Oct 30.6 °C 48 % 37 km/h 4.1 mm Low 6
4 Oct 34.4 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 20
5 Oct 34.1 °C 40 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 23
6 Oct 35.6 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Oct after 33.3 °C 43 % 24 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 19
8 Oct after 31.9 °C 49 % 31 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 13

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Aug 2017
After · 13 Oct 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 · 9,986Every 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 Cumaru do Norte fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 10 August 2017 to 6 October 2017 (58 days). The perimeter dates it from 17 August 2017 to 30 September 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 215,807 hectares (2,158.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Cumaru do Norte (150,501 ha, 8.8 %); São Félix do Xingu (66,837 ha, 0.8 %); Santana do Araguaia (336 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 46 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 30 September 2017 → 6 October 2017.
  2. Start date: 17 August 2017 → 10 August 2017.

RSS Changes to this page

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; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 17 August 2017 to 30 September 2017. 9,986 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.