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Minaçu fire, August 2017 Colinas do Sul, Minaçu

Out · last detection 10 Sept 2017, 17:01 UTC

The fire started on 30 August 2017 in Minaçu, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,358 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 22th largest in Goiás since 2016 (of 548 with a page). Number 69 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
20,358ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
30 Aug 2017 – 10 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
30 Aug
2017
Heat detections
937
in a single hotspot: 123 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
8.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Aug10 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

303112345678910

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
39km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Colinas do Sul 4,030 inhabitants
    10,561 ha reached on 2 Sept
    6.1 %
  2. Minaçu 27,075 inhabitants where it started
    9,925 ha reached on 30 Aug
    3.4 %

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)
30 Aug 35.5 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
31 Aug 35.4 °C 20 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Sept 34.4 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
2 Sept 32.9 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Sept 31.9 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Sept 30.9 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Sept 31.8 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
6 Sept 32.7 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Sept 33.8 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
8 Sept 34.6 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Sept 33.9 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Sept 33.8 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Sept after 34.6 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
12 Sept after 33.9 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Sept after 32.7 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Sept after 33.2 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Sept after 33.2 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Sept after 32.9 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Sept after 32.6 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Sept after 32.9 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Sept after 33.6 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Sept after 34.1 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Aug 2017
After · 17 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 · 937Every 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 Minaçu fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 August 2017 and 10 September 2017: 12 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 20,358 hectares (203.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Colinas do Sul (10,561 ha, 6.1 %); Minaçu (9,925 ha, 3.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.