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Feira Nova do Maranhão fire, September 2024 Feira Nova do Maranhão

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2024, 16:44 UTC

The fire started on 9 September 2024 in Feira Nova do Maranhão, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,485 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 106th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 531 with a page). Number 434 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Burnt area
7,485ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
9 Sept 2024 – 14 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
9 Sept
2024
Heat detections
192
in a single hotspot: 185 MW
Danger at start
66
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
637MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Sept14 Sept
14 Sept 2024

How it evolved, day by day

9 Sept 2024 · 555 MW · 48 10 Sept 2024 · 900 MW · 42 11 Sept 2024 · 244 MW · 26 12 Sept 2024 · 513 MW · 22 13 Sept 2024 · 1,588 MW · 45 14 Sept 2024 · 22 MW · 9
9 Sept 11 Sept 13 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
54km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 27 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

17% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 676 ha in 2016, 604 ha in 2020.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 4.7% of the area of London (75 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Feira Nova do Maranhão 5,783 inhabitants where it started
    7,533 ha reached on 9 Sept
    5.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area0.61 ha
Residents≈ 70

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.61 hectares of built-up land and about 70 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with Extreme FWI: 46 % of the area in Brazil Strong wind: 3.1 % of the area in Brazil

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
9 Sept 36.3 °C 18 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
10 Sept 36.4 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
11 Sept 36.5 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
12 Sept 36.9 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
13 Sept 36.7 °C 21 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
14 Sept 37.1 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
15 Sept after 37.2 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
16 Sept after 38.3 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
17 Sept after 38.9 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
18 Sept after 37.9 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
19 Sept after 37.3 °C 20 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
20 Sept after 37.8 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
21 Sept after 37.9 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
22 Sept after 37.7 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
23 Sept after 37.8 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
24 Sept after 35.8 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 46

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 66.5, a minimum humidity of 18% and 27 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 65.

FWI at the start 66.5
Minimum humidity 18 %
Days without rain 27
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

São Félix de Balsas fire, September 2025
9,208 ha 22 days FWI 60.7 Min. humidity 18 % 203 km away, in 2025

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

10 days
median duration
4,301 ha
median area
9 %
went past 10,000 ha
4.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 12 of 65 had it)

It was 1.7 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 6 days, against 10 days.

Only 11 of its 65 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 53 of 65, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 4.0 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
54km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 14 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 12 of 65, with a median of 4.0 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Sept 2024
After · 21 Sept 2024

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 15 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 15: 1.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak23 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1032 µg/m³
Optical depth0.46
7 Sept10 Sept13 Sept16 Sept
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 · 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 Feira Nova do Maranhão fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 September 2024 and 14 September 2024: 6 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 7,485 hectares (74.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Feira Nova do Maranhão (7,533 ha, 5.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 70, class Very 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 65. Their median duration was 10 days and their median area 4,301 ha; 9 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 11 of its 65 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 53 of 65, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 4.0 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 192 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.