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Guaribas fire, September 2017 Guaribas, Caracol

Out · last detection 12 Sept 2017, 16:25 UTC

The fire started on 3 September 2017 in Guaribas, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,844 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 200th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 804 with a page). Number 291 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
6,844ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
3 Sept 2017 – 11 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
3 Sept
2017
Heat detections
208
in a single hotspot: 420 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
7.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Sept11 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

3456789101112

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
61km/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. Guaribas 4,276 inhabitants where it started
    4,683 ha reached on 3 Sept
    1.5 %
  2. Caracol 10,318 inhabitants
    2,204 ha reached on 3 Sept
    1.4 %

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)
3 Sept 29.7 °C 38 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Sept 27.8 °C 44 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Sept 32.3 °C 31 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Sept 32.6 °C 35 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Sept 32.1 °C 37 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Sept 33.2 °C 31 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Sept 32.6 °C 31 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Sept 33.0 °C 28 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Sept 31.6 °C 37 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Sept after 31.8 °C 31 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Sept after 32.9 °C 31 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Sept after 33.0 °C 29 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Sept after 32.1 °C 28 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Sept after 30.7 °C 35 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Sept after 32.0 °C 33 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Sept after 32.9 °C 31 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Sept after 33.2 °C 30 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Sept after 32.5 °C 31 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Sept after 32.3 °C 32 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Sept after 32.7 °C 32 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Aug 2017
After · 18 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 · 208Every 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 Guaribas fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 September 2017 and 11 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 6,844 hectares (68.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Guaribas (4,683 ha, 1.5 %); Caracol (2,204 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 61 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

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.