Itacajá fire, August 2024 Itacajá
The fire started on 24 August 2024 in Itacajá, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,670 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 662th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 742 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.
- Burnt area
- 4,670ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 24 Aug 2024 – 28 Aug 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 24 Aug
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 139
- in a single hotspot: 94 MW
- Danger at start
- 47
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,760 ha in 2017, 1,943 ha in 2019, 1,109 ha in 2020, 565 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,053 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
4,703 ha reached on 24 Aug1.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Aug | 35.8 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 25 Aug | 37.0 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 26 Aug | 37.5 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Aug | 38.4 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 28 Aug | 36.8 °C | 12 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 29 Aug after | 35.3 °C | 19 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 30 Aug after | 35.4 °C | 23 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 31 Aug after | 35.8 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 1 Sept after | 36.4 °C | 21 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 2 Sept after | 37.1 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 3 Sept after | 37.0 °C | 18 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 4 Sept after | 38.8 °C | 10 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 5 Sept after | 38.5 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 6 Sept after | 37.6 °C | 16 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 7 Sept after | 37.8 °C | 18 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 8 Sept after | 37.8 °C | 16 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 9 Sept after | 36.7 °C | 20 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 10 Sept after | 36.7 °C | 19 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 11 Sept after | 37.5 °C | 20 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 12 Sept after | 37.6 °C | 21 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 13 Sept after | 37.8 °C | 18 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 14 Sept after | 37.3 °C | 19 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 31 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 27 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 139Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Itacajá fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 August 2024 and 28 August 2024: 5 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 4,670 hectares (46.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Itacajá (4,703 ha, 1.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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
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.