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Loreto fire, July 2018 Loreto

Out · last detection 22 Jul 2018, 16:56 UTC

The fire started on 13 July 2018 in Loreto, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,238 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 521th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 607 with a page). Number 256 in Brazil in 2018, of 291.

The power measured by the satellite is low (28.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,238ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
13 Jul 2018 – 21 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
13 Jul
2018
Heat detections
189
in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
860MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Jul 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Jul21 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

13141516171819202122

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

35°high
42km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

9% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 278 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Loreto 11,597 inhabitants where it started
    3,260 ha reached on 13 Jul
    0.9 %

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 Jul 34.4 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Jul 33.7 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Jul 33.5 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 Jul 34.5 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Jul 33.3 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Jul 33.7 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Jul 34.2 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Jul 33.7 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Jul 33.6 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Jul after 34.1 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
23 Jul after 34.6 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Jul after 34.4 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Jul after 34.6 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Jul after 34.5 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Jul after 34.9 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Jul after 35.3 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Jul after 34.7 °C 39 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Jul after 34.3 °C 37 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
31 Jul after 35.1 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Aug after 35.5 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Aug after 33.9 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Aug after 34.9 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Aug after 35.3 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Aug after 35.7 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Aug after 36.3 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Aug after 36.6 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Jul 2018
After · 28 Jul 2018

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 · 189Every 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 Loreto fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 July 2018 and 21 July 2018: 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 3,238 hectares (32.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Loreto (3,260 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.3 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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
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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.