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Itaituba fire, August 2021 Itaituba, Novo Progresso

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

The fire started on 5 August 2021 in Itaituba, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,201 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 1002th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 1095 with a page). Number 746 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Burnt area
3,201ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
5 Aug 2021 – 13 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
5 Aug
2021
Heat detections
166
in a single hotspot: 133 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Aug 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Aug13 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

5678910111213

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
39km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 47 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.2 mm on 27 Aug.

This area had burned before

10% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 306 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. Itaituba 123,314 inhabitants where it started
    3,143 ha reached on 5 Aug
    0.0 %
  2. Novo Progresso 33,638 inhabitants
    80 ha
    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)
5 Aug 37.8 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Aug 36.7 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Aug 36.8 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 Aug 36.6 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Aug 37.6 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Aug 37.5 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Aug 38.3 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Aug 37.6 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Aug 35.5 °C 38 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Aug after 33.3 °C 43 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
15 Aug after 35.2 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
16 Aug after 35.5 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Aug after 37.2 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Aug after 38.4 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Aug after 38.8 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Aug after 38.4 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Aug after 37.5 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Aug after 37.8 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Aug after 38.5 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Aug after 38.1 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Aug after 36.6 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Aug after 37.2 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.9 mm High 29
27 Aug after 35.9 °C 38 % 31 km/h 3.2 mm Moderate 11

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 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 · 166Every 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 5 August 2021 and 13 August 2021: 9 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 3,201 hectares (32.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Itaituba (3,143 ha, 0.0 %); Novo Progresso (80 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.

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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.