Skip to content
worldfires
BR · Brazil · →

Mansidão fire, 17 September 2018 Cotegipe, Mansidão

Out · last detection 12 Oct 2018, 16:18 UTC

The fire started on 17 September 2018 in Mansidão, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 25 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 21,838 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 27th largest in Bahia since 2016 (of 466 with a page). Number 7 in Brazil in 2018, of 291.

Burnt area
21,838ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
25days
17 Sept 2018 – 11 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
17 Sept
2018
Heat detections
746
in a single hotspot: 346 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
17.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Sept11 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021222324252627282930123456789101112

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
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 17.5 mm on 15 Oct.

This area had burned before

9% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,974 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Cotegipe 13,063 inhabitants
    12,916 ha reached on 20 Sept
    3.0 %
  2. Mansidão 13,919 inhabitants where it started
    9,057 ha reached on 17 Sept
    2.9 %

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)
17 Sept 36.7 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Sept 37.3 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Sept 37.1 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Sept 36.5 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 Sept 36.5 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Sept 37.6 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Sept 36.6 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Sept 36.0 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Sept 35.7 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Sept 36.3 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Sept 35.8 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
28 Sept 37.4 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Sept 37.0 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Sept 37.0 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Oct 35.7 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 Oct 36.2 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Oct 36.7 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Oct 38.0 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Oct 36.2 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Oct 35.9 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 49
7 Oct 36.2 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Oct 35.8 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Oct 36.8 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Oct 37.4 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
11 Oct 37.9 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Oct after 38.0 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Oct after 36.1 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Oct after 37.7 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Oct after 34.2 °C 43 % 31 km/h 17.5 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Sept 2018
After · 18 Oct 2018

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 · 746Every 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 Mansidão fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 September 2018 and 11 October 2018: 25 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 21,838 hectares (218.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cotegipe (12,916 ha, 3.0 %); Mansidão (9,057 ha, 2.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % 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.