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Guaraí fire, July 2020 Presidente Kennedy, Guaraí, Tupiratins

Out · last detection 21 Sept 2020, 05:10 UTC

The fire started on 28 July 2020 in Guaraí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 56 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 44,956 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 20th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1241 with a page). Number 27 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Guaraí · 2017Brasilândia do Tocantins · 2016Brasilândia do Tocantins · 2017Tupiratins · 2019

Burnt area
44,956ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
56days
28 Jul 2020 – 21 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
4
municipalities
Started on
28 Jul
2020
Heat detections
2,053
in a single hotspot: 452 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
682MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Jul21 Sept
21 Sept 2020

How it evolved, day by day

28 Jul 2020 · 106 MW · 10 29 Jul 2020 · 56 MW · 6 30 Jul 2020 · 20 MW · 2 31 Jul 2020 · 37 MW · 4 1 Aug 2020 · 286 MW · 21 2 Aug 2020 · 117 MW · 4 3 Aug 2020 · 230 MW · 23 4 Aug 2020 · 6 MW · 4 5 Aug 2020 · 24 MW · 6 6 Aug 2020 · 134 MW · 17 7 Aug 2020 · 38 MW · 8 8 Aug 2020 · 47 MW · 10 9 Aug 2020 · 71 MW · 2 10 Aug 2020 · 62 MW · 6 11 Aug 2020 · 3 MW · 4 12 Aug 2020 · 50 MW · 6 13 Aug 2020 · 93 MW · 9 14 Aug 2020 · 307 MW · 12 15 Aug 2020 · 49 MW · 9 16 Aug 2020 · 73 MW · 23 17 Aug 2020 · 685 MW · 16 18 Aug 2020 · 60 MW · 15 19 Aug 2020 · 180 MW · 10 20 Aug 2020 · 971 MW · 24 21 Aug 2020 · 457 MW · 23 22 Aug 2020 · 337 MW · 43 23 Aug 2020 · 110 MW · 18 24 Aug 2020 · 577 MW · 21 25 Aug 2020 · 12 MW · 5 26 Aug 2020 · 1 MW · 1 27 Aug 2020 · 22 MW · 3 28 Aug 2020 · 1,772 MW · 76 29 Aug 2020 · 5,046 MW · 135 30 Aug 2020 · 3,428 MW · 161 31 Aug 2020 · 2,179 MW · 140 1 Sept 2020 · 4,390 MW · 306 2 Sept 2020 · 1,125 MW · 170 3 Sept 2020 · 1,796 MW · 59 4 Sept 2020 · 238 MW · 31 6 Sept 2020 · 1 MW · 1 7 Sept 2020 · 1,848 MW · 43 8 Sept 2020 · 450 MW · 46 9 Sept 2020 · 512 MW · 40 10 Sept 2020 · 270 MW · 24 11 Sept 2020 · 1,043 MW · 45 12 Sept 2020 · 1,629 MW · 28 13 Sept 2020 · 1,939 MW · 128 14 Sept 2020 · 920 MW · 87 15 Sept 2020 · 1,910 MW · 53 16 Sept 2020 · 997 MW · 81 17 Sept 2020 · 51 MW · 28 18 Sept 2020 · 1 MW · 1 20 Sept 2020 · 46 MW · 3 21 Sept 2020 · 2 MW · 2
28 Jul 5 Aug 13 Aug 21 Aug 29 Aug 7 Sept 15 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
47km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 59 days 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

66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,243 ha in 2016, 25,392 ha in 2017, 6 ha in 2018, 245 ha in 2019.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 28% of the area of London (450 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Presidente Kennedy 3,047 inhabitants
    28,249 ha reached on 30 Jul
    36 %
  2. Guaraí 24,775 inhabitants where it started
    11,455 ha reached on 28 Jul
    5.0 %
  3. Tupiratins 1,874 inhabitants
    3,045 ha reached on 14 Sept
    3.4 %
  4. Brasilândia do Tocantins 1,974 inhabitants
    2,495 ha reached on 12 Sept
    3.8 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area2.5 ha
Residents≈ 100

Inside the perimeter there were about 2.5 hectares of built-up land and about 100 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
28 Jul 34.1 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Jul 34.0 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Jul 35.1 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Jul 34.1 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Aug 33.3 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
2 Aug 33.7 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Aug 33.5 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Aug 33.3 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Aug 32.5 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Aug 32.7 °C 31 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Aug 33.3 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Aug 33.6 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Aug 34.2 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Aug 34.7 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Aug 35.4 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Aug 35.6 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Aug 36.1 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Aug 35.8 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Aug 36.4 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Aug 37.3 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Aug 37.3 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Aug 36.6 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Aug 36.7 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Aug 37.2 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Aug 38.6 °C 14 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Aug 37.3 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Aug 35.0 °C 38 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Aug 34.2 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Aug 34.9 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Aug 35.7 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Aug 37.5 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Aug 35.9 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Aug 36.6 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Aug 36.7 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Aug 36.9 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Sept 36.6 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 Sept 36.3 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Sept 36.2 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
4 Sept 36.3 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Sept 37.1 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Sept 36.8 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 Sept 36.6 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
8 Sept 37.2 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Sept 37.8 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Sept 37.9 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Sept 37.8 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Sept 37.6 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Sept 36.9 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Sept 36.8 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Sept 36.4 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Sept 37.6 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Sept 37.1 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Sept 37.4 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Sept 36.8 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Sept 37.0 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Sept 36.0 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Sept after 33.3 °C 48 % 23 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
23 Sept after 36.7 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.4 mm High 30
24 Sept after 37.1 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Sept after 31.1 °C 53 % 30 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 · 21 Jul 2020
After · 28 Sept 2020

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 · 2,053Every 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 Guaraí fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 28 July 2020 to 21 September 2020 (56 days). The perimeter dates it from 30 July 2020 to 21 September 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 44,956 hectares (449.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Presidente Kennedy (28,249 ha, 36 %); Guaraí (11,455 ha, 5.0 %); Tupiratins (3,045 ha, 3.4 %); Brasilândia do Tocantins (2,495 ha, 3.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 30 July 2020 → 28 July 2020.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 30 July 2020 to 21 September 2020. 2,053 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.