Curionópolis fire, September 2024 Canaã dos Carajás, Curionópolis
The fire started on 8 September 2024 in Curionópolis, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,417 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 154th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 1095 with a page). Number 222 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.
- Burnt area
- 13,417ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 8 Sept 2024 – 24 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 8 Sept
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 560
- in a single hotspot: 71 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.4GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.1 mm on 30 Sept.
This area had burned before
78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,839 ha in 2016, 5,929 ha in 2017, 5,376 ha in 2019, 5,423 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,461 ha that had burned before.
- 4,949 ha Canaã dos Carajás fire, August 2017 23,812 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,467 ha Curionópolis fire, August 2022 4,744 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,061 ha Canaã dos Carajás fire, July 2016 3,368 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 981 ha Canaã dos Carajás fire, September 2017 3,797 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Canaã dos Carajás 77,079 inhabitants8,284 ha reached on 8 Sept2.6 %
-
5,223 ha reached on 9 Sept2.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Sept | 34.7 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 2 Sept | 34.1 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 3 Sept | 33.8 °C | 28 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 4 Sept | 35.8 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 5 Sept | 34.5 °C | 26 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 6 Sept | 34.0 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 7 Sept | 35.4 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 8 Sept | 33.4 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 9 Sept | 32.9 °C | 31 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 10 Sept | 34.0 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 11 Sept | 34.5 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 12 Sept | 34.7 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 13 Sept | 34.1 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 14 Sept | 34.3 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 15 Sept | 34.7 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 16 Sept | 34.6 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 17 Sept | 34.4 °C | 34 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 18 Sept | 33.8 °C | 38 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 19 Sept | 32.8 °C | 35 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 20 Sept | 33.9 °C | 35 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 21 Sept | 34.1 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 22 Sept | 34.4 °C | 35 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 23 Sept | 34.5 °C | 38 % | 32 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 35 |
| 24 Sept | 32.3 °C | 44 % | 35 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 29 |
| 25 Sept after | 32.3 °C | 45 % | 36 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 28 |
| 26 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 39 % | 32 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 27 |
| 27 Sept after | 34.3 °C | 38 % | 31 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 30 |
| 28 Sept after | 33.2 °C | 45 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
| 29 Sept after | 33.9 °C | 39 % | 28 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 28 |
| 30 Sept after | 30.1 °C | 55 % | 36 km/h | 6.1 mm | Low 7 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 12 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 54 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 33: 2.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 560Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 4,744 haCurionópolisAugust 2022 · 12 days · 6 km away
- 3,797 haCanaã dos Carajás3 September 2017 · 9 days · 6 km away
- 23,812 haCanaã dos CarajásAugust 2017 · 24 days · 16 km away
- 27,071 haSapucaiaAugust 2017 · 22 days · 22 km away
- 9,745 haCanaã dos Carajás13 September 2017 · 13 days · 27 km away
- 9,825 haCanaã dos CarajásSeptember 2024 · 16 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Curionópolis fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 September 2024 and 24 September 2024: 17 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 13,417 hectares (134.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Canaã dos Carajás (8,284 ha, 2.6 %); Curionópolis (5,223 ha, 2.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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
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.