Skip to content
worldfires
BR · Brazil · →

Darcinópolis fire, August 2020 Darcinópolis

Out · last detection 9 Sept 2020, 16:32 UTC

The fire started on 29 August 2020 in Darcinópolis, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,020 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1228th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 945 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area
3,020ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
29 Aug 2020 – 9 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
29 Aug
2020
Heat detections
76
in a single hotspot: 69 MW
Danger at start
38
High · FWI index
Energy released
624MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Aug9 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

29123456789

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
44km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 25 Sept.

This area had burned before

46% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,385 ha in 2017, 15 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Darcinópolis 5,827 inhabitants where it started
    3,039 ha reached on 29 Aug
    1.8 %

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)
29 Aug 34.4 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
30 Aug 35.3 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 Aug 33.4 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Sept 34.9 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Sept 35.1 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Sept 34.7 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Sept 34.2 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
5 Sept 35.4 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Sept 34.8 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Sept 34.5 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Sept 35.2 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Sept 35.5 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Sept after 35.7 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Sept after 35.6 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Sept after 35.7 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Sept after 34.4 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
14 Sept after 34.5 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Sept after 35.2 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Sept after 35.6 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Sept after 36.0 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Sept after 34.1 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Sept after 34.2 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
20 Sept after 34.9 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Sept after 34.1 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
22 Sept after 32.5 °C 47 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm High 27
23 Sept after 34.4 °C 42 % 27 km/h 0.4 mm High 28
24 Sept after 34.4 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Sept after 30.3 °C 50 % 33 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Aug 2020
After · 16 Sept 2020

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 · 76Every 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 29 August 2020 and 9 September 2020: 12 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 3,020 hectares (30.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Darcinópolis (3,039 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 44 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.