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Itaituba fire, August 2017 Itaituba

Out · last detection 14 Aug 2017, 17:10 UTC

The fire started on 8 August 2017 in Itaituba, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,445 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 883th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 1096 with a page). Number 811 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
3,445ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
8 Aug 2017 – 15 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
8 Aug
2017
Heat detections
251
in a single hotspot: 98 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Aug15 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
38km/h · peak gust
25%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. Itaituba 123,314 inhabitants where it started
    3,474 ha reached on 8 Aug
    0.1 %

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)
8 Aug 37.3 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
9 Aug 37.5 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
10 Aug 36.8 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
11 Aug 34.3 °C 40 % 24 km/h 2.8 mm Moderate 13
12 Aug 34.1 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
13 Aug 36.5 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Aug 37.8 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Aug 39.1 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Aug after 37.4 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Aug after 34.5 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Aug after 37.3 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Aug after 38.0 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Aug after 37.5 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Aug after 34.2 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
22 Aug after 35.3 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Aug after 34.5 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
24 Aug after 36.3 °C 28 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Aug after 37.8 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Aug after 38.7 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Aug after 38.6 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Aug after 38.7 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Aug after 36.7 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Aug after 38.1 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Aug 2017
After · 22 Aug 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 · 251Every 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 Itaituba fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 August 2017 and 15 August 2017: 8 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 3,445 hectares (34.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Itaituba (3,474 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.1 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.