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Darcinópolis fire, 15 August 2023 Darcinópolis

Out · last detection 21 Aug 2023, 16:58 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2023 in Darcinópolis, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,322 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1065th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 371 in Brazil in 2023, of 431.

Burnt area
3,322ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
15 Aug 2023 – 21 Aug 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
15 Aug
2023
Heat detections
135
in a single hotspot: 75 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Aug 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug21 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

15161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
43km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 29 Aug.

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
    3,344 ha reached on 14 Aug
    2.0 %

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)
14 Aug 35.6 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Aug 35.4 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Aug 35.4 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
17 Aug 35.8 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
18 Aug 36.5 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Aug 37.1 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Aug 36.3 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Aug 37.7 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Aug after 34.7 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Aug after 33.3 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
24 Aug after 35.9 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Aug after 34.3 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
26 Aug after 35.0 °C 41 % 22 km/h 0.3 mm High 32
27 Aug after 35.3 °C 39 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
28 Aug after 35.5 °C 37 % 21 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
29 Aug after 33.4 °C 48 % 24 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Aug 2023
After · 28 Aug 2023

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 · Copernicus

On 20 August 2023 the air beside the fire reached 39 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 23: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak39 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1056 µg/m³
Optical depth0.45
131415161718192021222324
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 135Every 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 August 2023 and 21 August 2023: 7 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 3,322 hectares (33.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Darcinópolis (3,344 ha, 2.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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
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.