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Lizarda fire, 7 September 2019 Rio Sono, Lizarda

Out · last detection 12 Sept 2019, 16:37 UTC

The fire started on 7 September 2019 in Lizarda, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,355 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 200th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 158 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.

Burnt area
10,355ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
7 Sept 2019 – 11 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
7 Sept
2019
Heat detections
299
in a single hotspot: 156 MW
Danger at start
64
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
4.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Sept11 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

789101112

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
52km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

36% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,553 ha in 2016, 1,206 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Rio Sono 4,841 inhabitants
    8,200 ha reached on 7 Sept
    1.3 %
  2. Lizarda 2,999 inhabitants where it started
    2,228 ha reached on 7 Sept
    0.4 %

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)
7 Sept 36.4 °C 21 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
8 Sept 37.0 °C 21 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
9 Sept 37.2 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
10 Sept 38.2 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Sept 37.7 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
12 Sept after 38.8 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
13 Sept after 39.2 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Sept after 38.8 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Sept after 37.8 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
16 Sept after 37.7 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
17 Sept after 37.4 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Sept after 39.1 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Sept after 39.6 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Sept after 39.4 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Sept after 39.7 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Sept after 38.0 °C 23 % 24 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 · 31 Aug 2019
After · 18 Sept 2019

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 · 299Every 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 Lizarda fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 September 2019 and 11 September 2019: 5 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 10,355 hectares (103.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rio Sono (8,200 ha, 1.3 %); Lizarda (2,228 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.