Skip to content
worldfires
BR · Brazil · →

Monte do Carmo fire, 24 September 2017 Monte do Carmo

Out · last detection 28 Sept 2017, 16:25 UTC

The fire started on 24 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 3,381 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1038th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 827 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
3,381ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
24 Sept 2017 – 28 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
24 Sept
2017
Heat detections
98
in a single hotspot: 111 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
869MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Sept28 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2425262728

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
49km/h · peak gust
16%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. Monte do Carmo 5,694 inhabitants where it started
    3,403 ha reached on 24 Sept
    0.9 %

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)
24 Sept 38.1 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Sept 38.6 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Sept 38.4 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Sept 39.3 °C 16 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
28 Sept 39.2 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
29 Sept after 39.9 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
30 Sept after 36.2 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 44
1 Oct after 35.8 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
2 Oct after 36.5 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
3 Oct after 32.7 °C 47 % 33 km/h 0.5 mm High 31
4 Oct after 38.9 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Oct after 38.6 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Oct after 38.7 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Oct after 39.0 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Oct after 36.5 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
9 Oct after 36.2 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
10 Oct after 38.1 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Oct after 38.0 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
12 Oct after 38.7 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Oct after 38.6 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Oct after 39.4 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Sept 2017
After · 5 Oct 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 · 98Every 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 24 September 2017 and 28 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 3,381 hectares (33.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Monte do Carmo (3,403 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.9 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.