Skip to content
worldfires
BR · Brazil · →

Monte do Carmo fire, September 2023 Monte do Carmo, Silvanópolis

Out · last detection 18 Sept 2023, 16:31 UTC

The fire started on 10 September 2023 in Monte do Carmo, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,429 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 721th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 215 in Brazil in 2023, of 431.

The power measured by the satellite is low (16.4 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
4,429ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
10 Sept 2023 – 17 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
10 Sept
2023
Heat detections
147
in a single hotspot: 16 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
635MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Sept 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Sept17 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

101112131415161718

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
52km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 10.4 mm on 27 Sept.

This area had burned before

99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,589 ha in 2016, 157 ha in 2017, 4,008 ha in 2019, 3,994 ha in 2021, 292 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,385 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Monte do Carmo 5,694 inhabitants where it started
    4,455 ha reached on 4 Sept
    1.2 %
  2. Silvanópolis
    6 ha reached on 13 Sept
    0.0 %

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)
4 Sept 36.0 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
5 Sept 36.7 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Sept 35.5 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Sept 35.0 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Sept 34.8 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Sept 35.9 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Sept 36.4 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Sept 36.4 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Sept 36.2 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Sept 37.3 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Sept 37.4 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Sept 37.9 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Sept 38.1 °C 20 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
17 Sept 36.2 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Sept after 37.0 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Sept after 37.5 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Sept after 37.4 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Sept after 36.8 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
22 Sept after 37.2 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Sept after 38.2 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Sept after 37.6 °C 24 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Sept after 36.9 °C 29 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Sept after 35.6 °C 36 % 23 km/h 0.6 mm High 30
27 Sept after 34.4 °C 42 % 24 km/h 10.4 mm Very low 5

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Sept 2023
After · 24 Sept 2023

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 15 September 2023 the air beside the fire reached 29 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak29 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1042 µg/m³
Optical depth0.36
891011121314151617181920
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 147Every 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 10 September 2023 and 17 September 2023: 8 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 4,429 hectares (44.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Monte do Carmo (4,455 ha, 1.2 %); Silvanópolis (6 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.