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Lizarda fire, 17 September 2020 Lizarda

Out · last detection 24 Sept 2020, 16:50 UTC

The fire started on 17 September 2020 in Lizarda, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,023 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 295th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 274 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area
8,023ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
17 Sept 2020 – 24 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
17 Sept
2020
Heat detections
254
in a single hotspot: 184 MW
Danger at start
66
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Sept24 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021222324

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
51km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

31% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,608 ha in 2016, 1,166 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,489 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Lizarda 2,999 inhabitants where it started
    8,067 ha reached on 13 Sept
    1.4 %

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)
13 Sept 36.2 °C 16 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
14 Sept 36.5 °C 16 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
15 Sept 36.0 °C 15 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
16 Sept 37.6 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
17 Sept 37.6 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Sept 38.3 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Sept 37.7 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Sept 37.9 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Sept 35.7 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 Sept 35.0 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Sept 36.9 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
24 Sept 37.7 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Sept after 34.9 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Sept after 35.3 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Sept after 37.8 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Sept after 39.5 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Sept after 39.2 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
30 Sept after 37.5 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Oct after 38.2 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Oct after 39.4 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Oct after 39.4 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Oct after 38.8 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Oct after 38.3 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Oct after 38.3 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Sept 2020
After · 1 Oct 2020

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 · 254Every 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 17 September 2020 and 24 September 2020: 8 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 8,023 hectares (80.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Lizarda (8,067 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, 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.

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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.