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Loreto fire, 30 August 2021 Loreto, Ribeiro Gonçalves

Out · last detection 16 Sept 2021, 16:57 UTC

The fire started on 30 August 2021 in Loreto, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,543 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 275th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 607 with a page). Number 451 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Burnt area
4,543ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
30 Aug 2021 – 15 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
30 Aug
2021
Heat detections
213
in a single hotspot: 47 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Aug15 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

3031123456789101112131516

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
43km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 23 Sept.

This area had burned before

22% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 76 ha in 2017, 1,005 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,005 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Loreto 11,597 inhabitants where it started
    4,575 ha reached on 23 Aug
    1.3 %
  2. Ribeiro Gonçalves
    0 ha
    0.0 %

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)
23 Aug 36.1 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Aug 36.3 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Aug 36.5 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Aug 37.6 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Aug 37.5 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Aug 37.2 °C 29 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Aug 37.4 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Aug 37.1 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 Aug 35.3 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Sept 33.9 °C 39 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Sept 34.4 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Sept 37.3 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
4 Sept 36.6 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Sept 37.2 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
6 Sept 37.8 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Sept 36.6 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
8 Sept 36.9 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Sept 37.2 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Sept 37.9 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Sept 37.8 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Sept 37.1 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Sept 37.9 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Sept 37.8 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Sept 36.9 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Sept after 37.3 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Sept after 37.2 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Sept after 36.7 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Sept after 37.6 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 Sept after 38.2 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Sept after 38.1 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Sept after 36.8 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Sept after 36.0 °C 36 % 35 km/h 1.3 mm High 27

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Aug 2021
After · 22 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 · 213Every 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 30 August 2021 and 15 September 2021: 17 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 4,543 hectares (45.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Loreto (4,575 ha, 1.3 %); Ribeiro Gonçalves (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.