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Darcinópolis fire, September 2020 Darcinópolis, Wanderlândia

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2020, 16:44 UTC

The fire started on 15 September 2020 in Darcinópolis, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,535 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 695th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 561 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area
4,535ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
15 Sept 2020 – 19 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
15 Sept
2020
Heat detections
143
in a single hotspot: 40 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
647MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Sept19 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1516171819

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
45km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 25 Sept.

This area had burned before

45% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 84 ha in 2016, 1,933 ha in 2017, 33 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Darcinópolis 5,827 inhabitants where it started
    4,246 ha reached on 15 Sept
    2.6 %
  2. Wanderlândia 10,522 inhabitants
    319 ha reached on 19 Sept
    0.2 %

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)
15 Sept 36.0 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Sept 36.4 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Sept 36.9 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Sept 34.9 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Sept 34.9 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Sept after 35.4 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Sept after 34.7 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Sept after 33.3 °C 46 % 35 km/h 0.4 mm High 29
23 Sept after 34.8 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.6 mm High 26
24 Sept after 35.3 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Sept after 31.6 °C 48 % 34 km/h 1.1 mm High 22

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Sept 2020
After · 26 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 · 143Every 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 15 September 2020 and 19 September 2020: 5 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 4,535 hectares (45.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Darcinópolis (4,246 ha, 2.6 %); Wanderlândia (319 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.