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Itacajá fire, August 2017 Itacajá, Goiatins, Recursolândia

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2017, 17:28 UTC

The fire started on 27 August 2017 in Itacajá, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 18,417 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 75th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 76 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
18,417ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
27 Aug 2017 – 13 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
27 Aug
2017
Heat detections
723
in a single hotspot: 111 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
5.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Aug13 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

27282930311234567891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
54km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,267 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Itacajá 6,819 inhabitants where it started
    14,637 ha reached on 22 Aug
    4.8 %
  2. Goiatins 12,433 inhabitants
    2,368 ha reached on 25 Aug
    0.4 %
  3. Recursolândia 3,421 inhabitants
    1,534 ha reached on 9 Sept
    0.7 %

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)
22 Aug 36.1 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Aug 34.6 °C 26 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Aug 34.8 °C 31 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Aug 35.6 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Aug 36.0 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Aug 35.3 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Aug 36.6 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Aug 36.3 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Aug 37.2 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Aug 37.9 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Sept 36.5 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Sept 34.8 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Sept 34.7 °C 27 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Sept 34.7 °C 25 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
5 Sept 35.4 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Sept 36.1 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 Sept 36.4 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Sept 36.4 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Sept 36.7 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
10 Sept 36.7 °C 24 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Sept 36.6 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Sept 36.4 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Sept 36.3 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Sept after 36.7 °C 25 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Sept after 36.5 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Sept after 35.1 °C 24 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Sept after 35.9 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Sept after 37.1 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Sept after 37.7 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Sept after 37.2 °C 25 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Sept after 35.9 °C 24 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Sept after 36.3 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Sept after 36.5 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Sept after 36.6 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Sept after 36.9 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Sept after 37.6 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Sept after 38.0 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
28 Sept after 38.5 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Sept after 39.1 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Sept after 37.2 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Aug 2017
After · 20 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 · 723Every 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 Itacajá fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 August 2017 and 13 September 2017: 18 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 18,417 hectares (184.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Itacajá (14,637 ha, 4.8 %); Goiatins (2,368 ha, 0.4 %); Recursolândia (1,534 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.