Skip to content
worldfires
BR · Brazil · →

Formosa fire, 8 September 2021 Formosa, Cabeceiras

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2021, 16:42 UTC

The fire started on 8 September 2021 in Formosa, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,282 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 41th largest in Goiás since 2016 (of 548 with a page). Number 80 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Burnt area
16,282ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
8 Sept 2021 – 22 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
8 Sept
2021
Heat detections
657
in a single hotspot: 166 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
13.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Sept22 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

89101112131516171819202122

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
44km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.5 mm on 25 Sept.

This area had burned before

41% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,593 ha in 2017, 2,404 ha in 2019, 257 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,641 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Formosa 115,901 inhabitants where it started
    16,406 ha reached on 8 Sept
    2.8 %
  2. Cabeceiras 7,560 inhabitants
    0 ha reached on 18 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)
8 Sept 32.6 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 Sept 34.4 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Sept 34.5 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Sept 34.6 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Sept 33.2 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Sept 32.7 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Sept 33.2 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Sept 34.1 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Sept 33.8 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Sept 30.2 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Sept 31.3 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Sept 33.8 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Sept 34.6 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Sept 35.6 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
22 Sept 36.3 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Sept after 32.5 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 43
24 Sept after 32.3 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Sept after 29.7 °C 38 % 25 km/h 2.5 mm Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Sept 2021
After · 29 Sept 2021

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 · 657Every 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 8 September 2021 and 22 September 2021: 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 16,282 hectares (162.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Formosa (16,406 ha, 2.8 %); Cabeceiras (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 44 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.

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.