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Formosa fire, 10 October 2019 Planaltina, Formosa

Out · last detection 17 Oct 2019, 04:47 UTC

The fire started on 10 October 2019 in Formosa, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,240 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 504th largest in Goiás since 2016 (of 548 with a page). Number 860 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.

Burnt area
3,240ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
10 Oct 2019 – 17 Oct 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
10 Oct
2019
Heat detections
115
in a single hotspot: 63 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Oct 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Oct17 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

101314151617

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
45km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 21 Oct.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Planaltina 105,031 inhabitants
    1,901 ha reached on 15 Oct
    0.7 %
  2. Formosa 115,901 inhabitants where it started
    1,357 ha reached on 10 Oct
    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)
10 Oct 30.3 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Oct 28.4 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Oct 29.9 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Oct 31.1 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Oct 31.0 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Oct 32.0 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Oct 31.5 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Oct 29.4 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Oct after 31.2 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Oct after 32.8 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Oct after 32.4 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
21 Oct after 28.1 °C 46 % 41 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Oct 2019
After · 24 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 · 115Every 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 Formosa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 October 2019 and 17 October 2019: 8 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 3,240 hectares (32.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Planaltina (1,901 ha, 0.7 %); Formosa (1,357 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.0 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.

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.