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Icó fire, August 2021 Icó

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2021, 16:45 UTC

The fire started on 30 August 2021 in Icó, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,658 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 3th largest in Ceará since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 152 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Burnt area
10,658ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
24days
30 Aug 2021 – 22 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
30 Aug
2021
Heat detections
500
in a single hotspot: 229 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
8.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Aug22 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

303112345678910111213141516171819202122

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
46km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 58 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,033 ha in 2016, 9,436 ha in 2019, 1,879 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,526 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Icó 62,642 inhabitants where it started
    10,732 ha reached on 30 Aug
    5.7 %

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)
30 Aug 34.0 °C 28 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Aug 34.7 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Sept 34.4 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Sept 35.3 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Sept 35.9 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Sept 34.3 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Sept 35.7 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Sept 36.4 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Sept 35.7 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Sept 34.6 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
9 Sept 35.1 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Sept 35.8 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Sept 35.7 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Sept 34.2 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Sept 35.2 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Sept 35.0 °C 29 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 51
15 Sept 35.4 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Sept 35.5 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Sept 35.6 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Sept 34.5 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
19 Sept 35.3 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Sept 35.2 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Sept 35.5 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Sept 36.5 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
23 Sept after 36.1 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Sept after 36.1 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.7 mm Very high 45
25 Sept after 35.5 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Sept after 36.0 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Sept after 35.1 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
28 Sept after 35.0 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Sept after 35.4 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Sept after 35.9 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Oct after 35.2 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Oct after 34.2 °C 34 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Aug 2021
After · 29 Sept 2021

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 · 500Every 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 30 August 2021 and 22 September 2021: 24 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 10,658 hectares (106.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Icó (10,732 ha, 5.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 46 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

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.