How long did the Grajaú fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 August 2017 and 13 September 2017: 20 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 7,574 hectares (75.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Grajaú (7,625 ha, 0.8 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.

BR · Brazil · 2017-08-25 → 2017-09-13

Grajaú fire, 25 August 2017 Grajaú

Out · last detection 13 Sept 2017, 05:10 UTC

The fire started on 25 August 2017 in Grajaú, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,574 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 115th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 607 with a page). Number 256 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area: 7,574ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 20days; 25 Aug 2017 – 13 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 25 Aug; 2017
Heat detections: 354; in a single hotspot: 350 MW
Danger at start: 23; High · FWI index
Energy released: 7.5GW; sum of detected power

Play back 13 Sept 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Aug13 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

25262729312345678910111213

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

The weather it burned in

38°high

49km/h · peak gust

27%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 641 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 560 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Grajaú 73,872 inhabitants where it started

7,625 ha reached on 25 Aug

0.8 %

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)
21 Aug	34.7 °C	45 %	35 km/h	0.7 mm	High 23
22 Aug	35.1 °C	38 %	36 km/h	0.2 mm	High 29
23 Aug	35.3 °C	29 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
24 Aug	34.6 °C	38 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
25 Aug	35.2 °C	39 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
26 Aug	36.3 °C	31 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
27 Aug	35.7 °C	35 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
28 Aug	36.4 °C	29 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
29 Aug	36.2 °C	33 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
30 Aug	36.9 °C	30 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
31 Aug	37.2 °C	32 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
1 Sept	35.5 °C	39 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
2 Sept	36.1 °C	34 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
3 Sept	35.9 °C	28 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
4 Sept	35.5 °C	29 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
5 Sept	35.5 °C	30 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
6 Sept	35.9 °C	37 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
7 Sept	35.6 °C	40 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
8 Sept	37.0 °C	34 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
9 Sept	36.3 °C	30 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
10 Sept	37.0 °C	29 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
11 Sept	36.7 °C	30 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
12 Sept	37.0 °C	28 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
13 Sept	35.9 °C	34 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
14 Sept after	37.1 °C	33 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
15 Sept after	37.0 °C	33 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
16 Sept after	36.2 °C	27 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
17 Sept after	36.5 °C	29 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
18 Sept after	36.9 °C	33 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
19 Sept after	37.9 °C	30 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
20 Sept after	37.2 °C	34 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
21 Sept after	37.4 °C	30 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
22 Sept after	36.8 °C	31 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
23 Sept after	37.1 °C	30 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
24 Sept after	36.9 °C	31 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
25 Sept after	35.5 °C	36 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
26 Sept after	38.1 °C	31 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
27 Sept after	37.6 °C	32 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
28 Sept after	38.0 °C	30 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
29 Sept after	38.6 °C	29 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 18 Aug 2017

After · 20 Sept 2017

Before After

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 · 354Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Grajaú fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 August 2017 and 13 September 2017: 20 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 7,574 hectares (75.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Grajaú (7,625 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned