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Dianópolis fire, September 2019 Dianópolis, Novo Jardim, Barreiras

Out · last detection 28 Sept 2019, 04:02 UTC

The fire started on 13 September 2019 in Dianópolis, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,969 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 106th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 88 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.

Burnt area
14,969ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
13 Sept 2019 – 27 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
13 Sept
2019
Heat detections
444
in a single hotspot: 252 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
7.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Sept27 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

13141516171819202122232425262728

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
57km/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: 5.8 mm on 29 Sept.

This area had burned before

67% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 9,901 ha in 2016, 185 ha in 2017, 94 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Dianópolis 2,866 inhabitants where it started
    8,589 ha reached on 13 Sept
    2.6 %
  2. Novo Jardim 17,739 inhabitants
    4,987 ha reached on 18 Sept
    4.1 %
  3. Barreiras 159,734 inhabitants
    1,474 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)
13 Sept 35.2 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Sept 35.6 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Sept 33.2 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Sept 33.5 °C 29 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Sept 33.5 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
18 Sept 35.4 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Sept 35.2 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Sept 35.7 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Sept 35.9 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Sept 34.8 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Sept 34.2 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Sept 34.0 °C 28 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
25 Sept 33.5 °C 29 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
26 Sept 32.2 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Sept 33.3 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Sept after 33.2 °C 36 % 22 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
29 Sept after 30.3 °C 45 % 28 km/h 5.8 mm Low 7

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Sept 2019
After · 4 Oct 2019

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 · 444Every 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 13 September 2019 and 27 September 2019: 15 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 14,969 hectares (149.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Dianópolis (8,589 ha, 2.6 %); Novo Jardim (4,987 ha, 4.1 %); Barreiras (1,474 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.