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Grajaú fire, 31 August 2017 Grajaú

Out · last detection 8 Sept 2017, 16:01 UTC

The fire started on 31 August 2017 in Grajaú, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,113 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 558th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 607 with a page). Number 944 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
3,113ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
31 Aug 2017 – 8 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
31 Aug
2017
Heat detections
135
in a single hotspot: 215 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Aug8 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

31345678

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
47km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Grajaú 73,872 inhabitants where it started
    3,133 ha reached on 28 Aug
    0.4 %

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)
25 Aug 35.2 °C 38 % 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 35.5 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Aug 36.2 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Aug 36.0 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Aug 36.6 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
31 Aug 36.8 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Sept 34.9 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Sept 35.9 °C 34 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
3 Sept 35.9 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Sept 35.5 °C 28 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Sept 35.5 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Sept 35.8 °C 37 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Sept 35.6 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Sept 36.7 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Sept after 36.1 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Sept after 36.8 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Sept after 36.5 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Sept after 36.9 °C 29 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Sept after 35.7 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Sept after 37.1 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Sept after 36.8 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Sept after 36.3 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Sept after 36.5 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Sept after 36.6 °C 33 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Aug 2017
After · 15 Sept 2017

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 · 135Every 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 Grajaú fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 August 2017 and 8 September 2017: 9 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 3,113 hectares (31.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Grajaú (3,133 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.