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Formosa fire, August 2021 Formosa

Out · last detection 26 Aug 2021, 16:49 UTC

The fire started on 17 August 2021 in Formosa, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,544 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 437th largest in Goiás since 2016 (of 548 with a page). Number 656 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

The power measured by the satellite is low (23.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,544ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
17 Aug 2021 – 26 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
17 Aug
2021
Heat detections
123
in a single hotspot: 24 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
563MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Aug 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Aug26 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

17181920212223242526

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
41km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

68% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,565 ha in 2016, 857 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Formosa 115,901 inhabitants where it started
    3,565 ha reached on 11 Aug
    0.6 %

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)
11 Aug 30.2 °C 25 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Aug 30.7 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Aug 29.4 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Aug 29.3 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Aug 30.2 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Aug 30.3 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Aug 30.3 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 Aug 29.3 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Aug 28.1 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Aug 28.6 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Aug 28.0 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Aug 29.4 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Aug 30.1 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Aug 31.0 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Aug 30.8 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Aug 31.8 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Aug after 31.6 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Aug after 29.9 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Aug after 29.7 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Aug after 29.8 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Aug after 29.1 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Sept after 28.6 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Sept after 28.9 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.3 mm High 33
3 Sept after 30.3 °C 28 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Sept after 31.4 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Sept after 33.2 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Aug 2021
After · 2 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 · 123Every 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 17 August 2021 and 26 August 2021: 10 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 3,544 hectares (35.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Formosa (3,565 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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.