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Darcinópolis fire, September 2017 Darcinópolis, Wanderlândia

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2017, 17:35 UTC

The fire started on 10 September 2017 in Darcinópolis, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,358 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 419th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 324 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
6,358ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
10 Sept 2017 – 19 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
10 Sept
2017
Heat detections
195
in a single hotspot: 139 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Sept19 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

101112131415161719

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
48km/h · peak gust
22%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. Darcinópolis 5,827 inhabitants where it started
    6,370 ha reached on 10 Sept
    3.9 %
  2. Wanderlândia 10,522 inhabitants
    29 ha
    0.0 %

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)
10 Sept 37.9 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Sept 37.5 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
12 Sept 37.4 °C 27 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Sept 36.8 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Sept 37.6 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Sept 37.8 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 Sept 37.1 °C 22 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Sept 37.2 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
18 Sept 38.1 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Sept 38.6 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Sept after 37.9 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Sept after 37.5 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Sept after 36.8 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
23 Sept after 36.5 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Sept after 36.8 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Sept after 36.4 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Sept after 38.1 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Sept after 37.5 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Sept after 38.5 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Sept after 38.2 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Sept after 36.1 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Oct after 36.2 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Sept 2017
After · 26 Sept 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 · 195Every 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 Darcinópolis fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 September 2017 and 19 September 2017: 10 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 6,358 hectares (63.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Darcinópolis (6,370 ha, 3.9 %); Wanderlândia (29 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.

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.