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Delfinópolis fire, August 2020 Delfinópolis, São Roque de Minas, Sacramento

Out · last detection 20 Aug 2020, 03:33 UTC

The fire started on 17 August 2020 in Delfinópolis, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,614 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 42th largest in Minas Gerais since 2016 (of 227 with a page). Number 360 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area
6,614ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
17 Aug 2020 – 20 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
17 Aug
2020
Heat detections
192
in a single hotspot: 42 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
912MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Aug 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Aug20 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

17181920

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
39km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,621 ha in 2016, 2,832 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,804 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Delfinópolis 8,393 inhabitants where it started
    4,033 ha reached on 17 Aug
    2.9 %
  2. São Roque de Minas 7,129 inhabitants
    1,646 ha reached on 17 Aug
    0.8 %
  3. Sacramento 26,670 inhabitants
    967 ha reached on 17 Aug
    0.3 %

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)
17 Aug 26.9 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 Aug 28.4 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Aug 30.4 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Aug 29.3 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Aug after 17.0 °C 68 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 19
22 Aug after 17.2 °C 70 % 36 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 12
23 Aug after 22.1 °C 46 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
24 Aug after 24.0 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
25 Aug after 24.2 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
26 Aug after 25.8 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Aug after 27.1 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Aug after 27.1 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Aug after 26.7 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Aug after 30.6 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Aug 2020
After · 27 Aug 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 · 192Every 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 Delfinópolis fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 August 2020 and 20 August 2020: 4 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 6,614 hectares (66.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Delfinópolis (4,033 ha, 2.9 %); São Roque de Minas (1,646 ha, 0.8 %); Sacramento (967 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.4 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class 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.

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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.