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Loreto fire, 27 August 2021 Loreto, São Félix de Balsas

Out · last detection 2 Sept 2021, 16:19 UTC

The fire started on 27 August 2021 in Loreto, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,582 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 426th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 607 with a page). Number 645 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

The power measured by the satellite is low (20.7 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
3,582ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
27 Aug 2021 – 1 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
27 Aug
2021
Heat detections
106
in a single hotspot: 21 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
744MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Aug1 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

272829303112

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
24%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,109 ha in 2016, 673 ha in 2017, 76 ha in 2018, 10 ha in 2019, 121 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. Loreto 11,597 inhabitants where it started
    2,997 ha reached on 27 Aug
    0.8 %
  2. São Félix de Balsas 4,402 inhabitants
    609 ha reached on 27 Aug
    0.3 %

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)
27 Aug 37.5 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Aug 37.1 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Aug 37.2 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Aug 37.2 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 Aug 35.3 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Sept 34.1 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Sept after 34.5 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Sept after 37.3 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Sept after 36.4 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Sept after 37.6 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Sept after 37.9 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
7 Sept after 36.8 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Sept after 37.0 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Sept after 37.1 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Sept after 37.8 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Sept after 37.9 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Sept after 37.3 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Sept after 37.9 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Aug 2021
After · 8 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 · 106Every 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 27 August 2021 and 1 September 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 3,582 hectares (35.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Loreto (2,997 ha, 0.8 %); São Félix de Balsas (609 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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
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.