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Icó fire, September 2019 Icó

Out · last detection 17 Oct 2019, 15:41 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2019 in Icó, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 36 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,696 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 2th largest in Ceará since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 115 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Icó · 2021Icó · 2025Icó · 2023Icó · 2019

Burnt area
12,696ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
36days
12 Sept 2019 – 17 Oct 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
12 Sept
2019
Heat detections
683
in a single hotspot: 291 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
325MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept17 Oct
17 Oct 2019

How it evolved, day by day

12 Sept 2019 · 18 MW · 4 13 Sept 2019 · 139 MW · 11 14 Sept 2019 · 1,273 MW · 27 15 Sept 2019 · 535 MW · 15 16 Sept 2019 · 289 MW · 23 17 Sept 2019 · 390 MW · 19 18 Sept 2019 · 208 MW · 20 19 Sept 2019 · 206 MW · 12 20 Sept 2019 · 251 MW · 10 21 Sept 2019 · 116 MW · 20 22 Sept 2019 · 48 MW · 6 23 Sept 2019 · 214 MW · 20 24 Sept 2019 · 519 MW · 14 25 Sept 2019 · 323 MW · 11 26 Sept 2019 · 158 MW · 11 27 Sept 2019 · 73 MW · 10 28 Sept 2019 · 22 MW · 8 29 Sept 2019 · 806 MW · 12 30 Sept 2019 · 22 MW · 5 1 Oct 2019 · 105 MW · 9 2 Oct 2019 · 6 MW · 2 3 Oct 2019 · 304 MW · 16 4 Oct 2019 · 242 MW · 18 5 Oct 2019 · 123 MW · 11 6 Oct 2019 · 807 MW · 32 7 Oct 2019 · 155 MW · 24 8 Oct 2019 · 1,194 MW · 60 9 Oct 2019 · 672 MW · 60 10 Oct 2019 · 464 MW · 40 11 Oct 2019 · 447 MW · 43 12 Oct 2019 · 936 MW · 34 13 Oct 2019 · 167 MW · 29 14 Oct 2019 · 209 MW · 16 15 Oct 2019 · 47 MW · 10 16 Oct 2019 · 24 MW · 5 17 Oct 2019 · 176 MW · 16
12 Sept 14 Sept 18 Sept 24 Sept 30 Sept 6 Oct 12 Oct

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
51km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 50 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

24% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,029 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 8% of the area of London (127 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. Icó 62,642 inhabitants where it started
    12,783 ha reached on 12 Sept
    6.8 %

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.

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)
12 Sept 34.6 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Sept 34.3 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Sept 34.4 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Sept 34.8 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Sept 33.9 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Sept 33.2 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Sept 33.2 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Sept 34.7 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Sept 34.5 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Sept 34.8 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Sept 34.2 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Sept 35.3 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Sept 34.2 °C 27 % 49 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 52
25 Sept 34.6 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Sept 34.4 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Sept 35.6 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Sept 36.5 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 Sept 35.2 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Sept 34.6 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Oct 35.2 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Oct 33.8 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Oct 35.6 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Oct 35.0 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
5 Oct 34.8 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Oct 35.0 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Oct 35.2 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Oct 34.8 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Oct 34.9 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Oct 35.0 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Oct 34.6 °C 26 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Oct 35.4 °C 24 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Oct 35.4 °C 23 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Oct 35.1 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Oct 35.5 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Oct 34.9 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Oct 34.7 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Oct after 34.9 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
19 Oct after 35.1 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Oct after 35.4 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Oct after 34.6 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Oct after 35.4 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Oct after 35.6 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Oct after 36.2 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Oct after 36.4 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Oct after 35.5 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Oct after 35.4 °C 27 % 40 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 · 5 Sept 2019
After · 24 Oct 2019

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 · 683Every 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 Icó fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 September 2019 and 17 October 2019: 36 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 12,696 hectares (127.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Icó (12,783 ha, 6.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

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.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 683 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.

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.