Skip to content
worldfires
BR · Brazil · →

Fortuna fire, October 2016 Governador Luiz Rocha, Fortuna, São Domingos do Maranhão

Out · last detection 15 Oct 2016, 16:51 UTC

The fire started on 9 October 2016 in Fortuna, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,534 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 190th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 607 with a page). Number 232 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

Burnt area
5,534ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
9 Oct 2016 – 15 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
9 Oct
2016
Heat detections
179
in a single hotspot: 382 MW
Danger at start
2
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
2.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Oct15 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

9101112131415

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
43km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 11.2 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. Governador Luiz Rocha 7,063 inhabitants
    3,131 ha reached on 11 Oct
    8.3 %
  2. Fortuna 16,976 inhabitants where it started
    2,438 ha reached on 6 Oct
    3.5 %
  3. São Domingos do Maranhão 34,034 inhabitants
    2 ha
    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)
6 Oct 31.5 °C 61 % 33 km/h 11.3 mm Very low 2
7 Oct 32.4 °C 57 % 17 km/h 5.5 mm Very low 1
8 Oct 33.8 °C 55 % 30 km/h 1.0 mm Very low 4
9 Oct 35.3 °C 47 % 21 km/h 0.4 mm Low 11
10 Oct 36.9 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
11 Oct 36.4 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
12 Oct 35.6 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
13 Oct 35.3 °C 37 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
14 Oct 36.3 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
15 Oct 35.8 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
16 Oct after 37.0 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Oct after 34.7 °C 44 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
18 Oct after 35.4 °C 46 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
19 Oct after 37.5 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
20 Oct after 34.3 °C 50 % 32 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 18
21 Oct after 30.2 °C 68 % 22 km/h 11.2 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Oct 2016
After · 22 Oct 2016

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 · 179Every 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 Fortuna fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 October 2016 and 15 October 2016: 7 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 5,534 hectares (55.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Governador Luiz Rocha (3,131 ha, 8.3 %); Fortuna (2,438 ha, 3.5 %); São Domingos do Maranhão (2 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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.