Lábrea fire, 2 September 2018 Lábrea
The fire started on 2 September 2018 in Lábrea, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,907 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 267th largest in Amazonas since 2016 (of 450 with a page). Number 169 in Brazil in 2018, of 291.
- Burnt area
- 3,907ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 2 Sept 2018 – 12 Sept 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 2 Sept
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 407
- in a single hotspot: 66 MW
- Danger at start
- 9
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.0GW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 17.5 mm on 15 Sept.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,939 ha in 2016, 3,828 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,802 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
3,941 ha reached on 28 Aug0.1 %
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 Aug | 33.4 °C | 43 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 29 Aug | 34.9 °C | 43 % | 19 km/h | 0.5 mm | Low 10 |
| 30 Aug | 33.9 °C | 47 % | 26 km/h | 0.7 mm | Low 9 |
| 31 Aug | 33.6 °C | 49 % | 27 km/h | 1.4 mm | Low 6 |
| 1 Sept | 35.4 °C | 48 % | 22 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 10 |
| 2 Sept | 32.9 °C | 51 % | 30 km/h | 4.4 mm | Very low 3 |
| 3 Sept | 29.0 °C | 49 % | 37 km/h | 0.4 mm | Low 8 |
| 4 Sept | 31.4 °C | 27 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 5 Sept | 32.4 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 6 Sept | 34.1 °C | 31 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 7 Sept | 34.1 °C | 34 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 8 Sept | 35.2 °C | 36 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 9 Sept | 36.1 °C | 33 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 10 Sept | 35.3 °C | 43 % | 26 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 21 |
| 11 Sept | 35.8 °C | 40 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 12 Sept | 35.8 °C | 41 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 13 Sept after | 34.8 °C | 45 % | 27 km/h | 1.9 mm | Low 11 |
| 14 Sept after | 33.7 °C | 52 % | 36 km/h | 5.1 mm | Very low 3 |
| 15 Sept after | 30.9 °C | 67 % | 29 km/h | 17.5 mm | Very low 0 |
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.
Detections table · 407Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 14,695 haLábrea31 July 2019 · 24 days · 13 km away
- 14,628 haLábrea29 July 2019 · 23 days · 13 km away
- 15,510 haLábrea7 August 2020 · 20 days · 14 km away
- 41,632 haLábrea28 July 2021 · 34 days · 16 km away
- 35,986 haLábrea14 August 2022 · 28 days · 18 km away
- 42,438 haLábrea2 August 2024 · 40 days · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lábrea fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 September 2018 and 12 September 2018: 11 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 3,907 hectares (39.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Lábrea (3,941 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, class 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
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.