Skip to content
worldfires
BR · Brazil · →

Monte do Carmo fire, 17 September 2017 Monte do Carmo

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

The fire started on 17 September 2017 in Monte do Carmo, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,783 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 638th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 508 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

The power measured by the satellite is low (18.1 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
4,783ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
17 Sept 2017 – 21 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
17 Sept
2017
Heat detections
144
in a single hotspot: 18 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
587MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Sept21 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
49km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.2 mm on 3 Oct.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Monte do Carmo 5,694 inhabitants where it started
    4,813 ha reached on 17 Sept
    1.3 %

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 35.0 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
18 Sept 36.3 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Sept 36.9 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Sept 37.3 °C 18 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Sept 33.4 °C 24 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Sept after 34.7 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Sept after 36.4 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Sept after 36.5 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 Sept after 37.2 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Sept after 37.1 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
27 Sept after 38.1 °C 16 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Sept after 38.0 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Sept after 38.8 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Sept after 35.6 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Oct after 34.7 °C 33 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Oct after 35.3 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
3 Oct after 31.6 °C 46 % 32 km/h 3.2 mm Low 10

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 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 · 144Every 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 Monte do Carmo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 September 2017 and 21 September 2017: 5 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 4,783 hectares (47.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Monte do Carmo (4,813 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.