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Itaituba fire, September 2017 Itaituba, Jacareacanga

Out · last detection 12 Sept 2017, 18:06 UTC

The fire started on 6 September 2017 in Itaituba, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,019 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 706th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 1096 with a page). Number 636 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
4,019ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
6 Sept 2017 – 12 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
6 Sept
2017
Heat detections
111
in a single hotspot: 106 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Sept12 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

6789101112

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
46km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 27 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.6 mm on 23 Sept.

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
    3,402 ha reached on 6 Sept
    0.0 %
  2. Jacareacanga 24,042 inhabitants
    660 ha reached on 9 Sept
    0.0 %

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)
6 Sept 36.9 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
7 Sept 36.7 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Sept 36.5 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Sept 35.3 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Sept 36.0 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Sept 36.3 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Sept 35.4 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Sept after 32.9 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Sept after 34.6 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Sept after 35.9 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Sept after 38.2 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Sept after 35.1 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Sept after 35.7 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Sept after 33.6 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Sept after 34.8 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.6 mm High 29
21 Sept after 33.4 °C 38 % 39 km/h 0.7 mm High 26
22 Sept after 34.5 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.4 mm High 28
23 Sept after 33.6 °C 38 % 31 km/h 4.6 mm Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Aug 2017
After · 19 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 · 111Every 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 6 September 2017 and 12 September 2017: 7 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 4,019 hectares (40.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Itaituba (3,402 ha, 0.0 %); Jacareacanga (660 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.