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Marabá fire, 12 September 2017 Marabá

Out · last detection 21 Sept 2017, 04:20 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2017 in Marabá, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,334 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 929th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 1096 with a page). Number 846 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
3,334ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
12 Sept 2017 – 21 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
12 Sept
2017
Heat detections
152
in a single hotspot: 363 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept21 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

121415161718192021

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high
48km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Marabá 266,533 inhabitants where it started
    3,358 ha reached on 5 Sept
    0.2 %

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)
5 Sept 35.0 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Sept 35.2 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Sept 34.4 °C 43 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Sept 34.4 °C 47 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Sept 34.1 °C 48 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
10 Sept 35.6 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Sept 35.3 °C 41 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Sept 36.0 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
13 Sept 34.4 °C 41 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Sept 35.0 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Sept 34.7 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Sept 35.7 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
17 Sept 34.6 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 Sept 35.5 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Sept 35.3 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
20 Sept 33.8 °C 48 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Sept 33.8 °C 45 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Sept after 33.6 °C 47 % 35 km/h 0.4 mm High 30
23 Sept after 34.4 °C 44 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Sept after 34.7 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Sept after 34.5 °C 49 % 36 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 20
26 Sept after 34.4 °C 46 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
27 Sept after 34.3 °C 49 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
28 Sept after 34.7 °C 46 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm High 25
29 Sept after 34.2 °C 52 % 48 km/h 0.3 mm High 25
30 Sept after 33.0 °C 51 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
1 Oct after 33.8 °C 47 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
2 Oct after 34.7 °C 44 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
3 Oct after 35.2 °C 40 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Oct after 36.0 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
5 Oct after 34.4 °C 48 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
6 Oct after 34.1 °C 48 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
7 Oct after 33.3 °C 49 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
8 Oct after 33.8 °C 47 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 27

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Sept 2017
After · 28 Sept 2017

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 · 152Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Marabá fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 September 2017 and 21 September 2017: 10 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 3,334 hectares (33.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Marabá (3,358 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.