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Dueré fire, September 2020 Dueré, Santa Rita do Tocantins

Out · last detection 17 Sept 2020, 17:21 UTC

The fire started on 14 September 2020 in Dueré, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,057 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 1212th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 928 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area
3,057ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
14 Sept 2020 – 17 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
14 Sept
2020
Heat detections
88
in a single hotspot: 93 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Sept17 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

14151617

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
39km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.8 mm on 22 Sept.

This area had burned before

100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,258 ha in 2016, 2,911 ha in 2017, 2,932 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,076 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Dueré 4,248 inhabitants where it started
    2,961 ha reached on 14 Sept
    0.9 %
  2. Santa Rita do Tocantins 2,219 inhabitants
    112 ha reached on 17 Sept
    0.0 %

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 Sept 37.5 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Sept 36.3 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Sept 38.0 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Sept 38.5 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Sept after 39.9 °C 16 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Sept after 39.0 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Sept after 38.1 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
21 Sept after 35.5 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
22 Sept after 30.0 °C 59 % 25 km/h 4.8 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Sept 2020
After · 24 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 · 88Every 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 Dueré fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 September 2020 and 17 September 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 3,057 hectares (30.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dueré (2,961 ha, 0.9 %); Santa Rita do Tocantins (112 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.

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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.