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Itaituba fire, July 2021 Itaituba

Out · last detection 13 Aug 2021, 04:58 UTC

The fire started on 28 July 2021 in Itaituba, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,003 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 523th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 1096 with a page). Number 401 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Burnt area
5,003ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
28 Jul 2021 – 13 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
28 Jul
2021
Heat detections
494
in a single hotspot: 221 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
5.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Aug 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Jul13 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

282930312345678910111213

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
40km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 39 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 53 ha in 2017, 45 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. Itaituba 123,314 inhabitants where it started
    5,040 ha reached on 28 Jul
    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)
28 Jul 36.9 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Jul 34.2 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Jul 35.1 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Jul 36.0 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Aug 36.2 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Aug 35.8 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Aug 36.2 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Aug 37.3 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Aug 37.3 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Aug 36.3 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Aug 36.7 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Aug 36.0 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Aug 37.1 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Aug 37.0 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Aug 37.7 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Aug 37.1 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Aug 35.1 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Aug after 32.9 °C 45 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Aug after 34.8 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm High 27
16 Aug after 34.9 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Aug after 36.8 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Aug after 38.0 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Aug after 38.3 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Aug after 37.9 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Aug after 37.1 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Aug after 37.2 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Aug after 38.1 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Jul 2021
After · 20 Aug 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 · 494Every 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 28 July 2021 and 13 August 2021: 17 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 5,003 hectares (50.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Itaituba (5,040 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.