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Dianópolis fire, August 2016 Dianópolis, Novo Jardim, Barreiras

Out · last detection 27 Aug 2016, 04:34 UTC

The fire started on 19 August 2016 in Dianópolis, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,590 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 127th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 52 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

Burnt area
13,590ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
19 Aug 2016 – 27 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
19 Aug
2016
Heat detections
386
in a single hotspot: 193 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
5.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Aug27 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

192021222324252627

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
55km/h · peak gust
23%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. Dianópolis 2,866 inhabitants where it started
    8,435 ha reached on 19 Aug
    2.5 %
  2. Novo Jardim 17,739 inhabitants
    4,432 ha reached on 18 Aug
    3.6 %
  3. Barreiras 159,734 inhabitants
    796 ha reached on 19 Aug
    0.1 %

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)
18 Aug 36.2 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Aug 35.3 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Aug 34.3 °C 23 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
21 Aug 35.8 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Aug 34.6 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Aug 34.6 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Aug 33.1 °C 34 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Aug 31.4 °C 35 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Aug 32.6 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Aug 33.0 °C 30 % 52 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 48
28 Aug after 32.0 °C 36 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Aug after 33.0 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Aug after 34.0 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Aug after 33.7 °C 29 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Sept after 34.5 °C 29 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Sept after 33.6 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
3 Sept after 31.7 °C 28 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Sept after 32.2 °C 28 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Sept after 32.7 °C 27 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Sept after 33.3 °C 28 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Aug 2016
After · 3 Sept 2016

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 · 386Every 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 Dianópolis fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 August 2016 and 27 August 2016: 9 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 13,590 hectares (135.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Dianópolis (8,435 ha, 2.5 %); Novo Jardim (4,432 ha, 3.6 %); Barreiras (796 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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
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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.