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Loreto fire, August 2026 Loreto, São Félix de Balsas

Out · last detection 24 Aug 2026, 04:25 UTC

The fire started on 14 August 2026 in Loreto, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,110 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 560th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 607 with a page). Number 716 in Brazil in 2026, of 749.

The power measured by the satellite is low (21.5 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
3,110ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
14 Aug 2026 – 24 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
14 Aug
2026
Heat detections
79
in a single hotspot: 21 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
424MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Aug 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Aug24 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1415161718192021222324

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
46km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 542 ha in 2016, 77 ha in 2017, 610 ha in 2019, 1,962 ha in 2021, 2,835 ha in 2023, 927 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,096 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Loreto 11,597 inhabitants where it started
    3,132 ha reached on 14 Aug
    0.9 %
  2. São Félix de Balsas 4,402 inhabitants
    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)
8 Aug 36.3 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 Aug 36.2 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Aug 36.7 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Aug 35.0 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Aug 35.2 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Aug 35.9 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Aug 36.8 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Aug 37.0 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 Aug 36.1 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Aug 34.8 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Aug 35.2 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Aug 35.8 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
20 Aug 36.9 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Aug 37.0 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Aug 36.9 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Aug 36.7 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Aug 38.5 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Aug after 36.5 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Aug after 36.5 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Aug after 35.5 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Aug after 35.9 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Aug after 37.4 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Aug after 37.2 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 Aug after 37.0 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Sept after 36.7 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
2 Sept after 36.3 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Sept after 36.0 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Aug 2026
After · 31 Aug 2026

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 21 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 32 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak32 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1032 µg/m³
Optical depth0.27
6789101112131415161718192021222324252627
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 79Every 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 14 August 2026 and 24 August 2026: 11 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 3,110 hectares (31.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Loreto (3,132 ha, 0.9 %); São Félix de Balsas (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.