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Monte Santo do Tocantins fire, August 2017 Monte Santo do Tocantins

Out · last detection 24 Aug 2017, 17:21 UTC

The fire started on 14 August 2017 in Monte Santo do Tocantins, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,242 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1106th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 878 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
3,242ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
14 Aug 2017 – 23 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
14 Aug
2017
Heat detections
98
in a single hotspot: 55 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
917MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Aug23 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1415161718192021222324

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
50km/h · peak gust
22%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 Santo do Tocantins 2,396 inhabitants where it started
    3,263 ha reached on 14 Aug
    3.0 %

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)
10 Aug 37.4 °C 24 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
11 Aug 37.8 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Aug 36.1 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Aug 36.3 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Aug 38.4 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Aug 37.9 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Aug 36.3 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Aug 36.7 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Aug 37.8 °C 23 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Aug 38.4 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Aug 37.3 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Aug 38.2 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Aug 37.2 °C 25 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Aug 36.0 °C 28 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Aug after 35.5 °C 28 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Aug after 35.9 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Aug after 36.3 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Aug after 36.2 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Aug after 37.6 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Aug after 37.9 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Aug after 38.2 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Aug after 38.5 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Sept after 37.4 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Sept after 36.3 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Sept after 35.6 °C 25 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Aug 2017
After · 30 Aug 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 Santo do Tocantins fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 August 2017 and 23 August 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 3,242 hectares (32.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Monte Santo do Tocantins (3,263 ha, 3.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.4 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.

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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.