Loreto fire, September 2026 Loreto, Ribeiro Gonçalves
The fire started on 19 September 2026 in Loreto, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,628 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 149th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 607 with a page). Number 228 in Brazil in 2026, of 747.
- Burnt area
- 6,628ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 19 Sept 2026 – 24 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 19 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 115
- in a single hotspot: 66 MW
- Danger at start
- 53
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.3GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.0 mm on 25 Sept.
This area had burned before
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,144 ha in 2017, 1,510 ha in 2019, 2,193 ha in 2021, 1,584 ha in 2023, 455 ha in 2024, 2,932 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,173 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
6,630 ha reached on 19 Sept1.8 %
-
46 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Sept | 36.1 °C | 26 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 19 Sept | 37.0 °C | 16 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 20 Sept | 34.9 °C | 28 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 21 Sept | 37.3 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 22 Sept | 37.5 °C | 22 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 23 Sept | 37.2 °C | 29 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 24 Sept | 36.8 °C | 30 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 25 Sept after | 33.3 °C | 46 % | 26 km/h | 4.0 mm | Low 8 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 21 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 74 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 38: 2.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 115Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Loreto fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 September 2026 and 24 September 2026: 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 6,628 hectares (66.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Loreto (6,630 ha, 1.8 %); Ribeiro Gonçalves (46 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 47 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
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.