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Loreto fire, 26 August 2021 Loreto, Sambaíba

Out · last detection 31 Aug 2021, 16:57 UTC

The fire started on 26 August 2021 in Loreto, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,533 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 276th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 607 with a page). Number 453 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Burnt area
4,533ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
26 Aug 2021 – 31 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
26 Aug
2021
Heat detections
117
in a single hotspot: 89 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Aug 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Aug31 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

262728293031

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
44km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

29% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 861 ha in 2018, 22 ha in 2019, 877 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,310 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Loreto 11,597 inhabitants where it started
    3,594 ha reached on 26 Aug
    1.0 %
  2. Sambaíba 5,568 inhabitants
    967 ha reached on 26 Aug
    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)
22 Aug 36.1 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Aug 35.6 °C 29 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Aug 35.8 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Aug 35.8 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Aug 37.6 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Aug 37.5 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Aug 37.7 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Aug 37.5 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Aug 37.5 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Aug 36.0 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Sept after 34.0 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
2 Sept after 34.8 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Sept after 37.3 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Sept after 36.9 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Sept after 37.6 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Sept after 37.7 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Sept after 36.7 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Sept after 37.0 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 43
9 Sept after 37.5 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Sept after 37.8 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Sept after 38.0 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Sept after 37.0 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Sept after 38.1 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Sept after 37.9 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Sept after 36.5 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Sept after 37.0 °C 24 % 38 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 · 19 Aug 2021
After · 7 Sept 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 · 117Every 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 26 August 2021 and 31 August 2021: 6 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 4,533 hectares (45.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Loreto (3,594 ha, 1.0 %); Sambaíba (967 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.