Burned area
satellite only10,420ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 5 Sept 2023 – 23 Sept 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
BR · Brazil · –
Natividade fire, September 2023 Natividade
Out · last detection 23 Sept 2023, 04:03 UTC
The fire started on 5 September 2023 in Natividade, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,420 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 168th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1036 with a page). Number 49 in Brazil in 2023, of 430.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-25matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only19days
5 Sept 2023 to 23 Sept 2023: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 23 Sept 2023, 04:03 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only5 Sept 2023
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 5 Sept 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only317
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 107 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 5 Sept 2023 – 23 Sept 2023
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only530MW
Total radiative power on 13 September 2023; hotspots that day: 29.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 13 Sept 2023
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model40.3FWI · very high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 5.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 5 Sept 2023, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model37.5°C · 20% RH
High of 37.5 °C and minimum humidity of 20% on 23 September 2023; gusts of 44 km/h on 7 September 2023.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 5 Sept 2023 – 23 Sept 2023
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 50people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 0.82 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2025).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 16 September 2023 → 23 September 2023.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 25 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 10,420 ha
- Dates
- 5 Sept 2023 – 23 Sept 2023
- Name
- Natividade
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/natividade-tocantins-2023-09?v=2026-10-25A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire natividade-tocantins-2023-09.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-09-05 | 5 | 119 | 35.9 | 20.1 | 26 | 14.6 | 32.4 | 0 | 40.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-09-06 | 1 | 2 | 34.6 | 22.1 | 29 | 15.7 | 34.2 | 0 | 42.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-09-07 | 18 | 67 | 34 | 22.3 | 27 | 20.6 | 44.3 | 0 | 51.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-09-08 | 6 | 41 | 33.1 | 20.5 | 29 | 18.9 | 41 | 0 | 48.7 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-09-09 | 9 | 81 | 34.4 | 18.5 | 23 | 17.1 | 37.4 | 0 | 47.8 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-09-10 | 16 | 64 | 34.7 | 18.2 | 22 | 15.6 | 36 | 0 | 48 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-09-11 | 49 | 504 | 35 | 19.7 | 25 | 15.3 | 34.2 | 0 | 47.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-09-12 | 86 | 517 | 34.9 | 20.7 | 29 | 15.1 | 35.3 | 0 | 46.7 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-09-13 | 29 | 530 | 36.1 | 20.4 | 23 | 14.5 | 35.6 | 0 | 49.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-09-14 | 53 | 434 | 36.3 | 20.6 | 23 | 11 | 30.6 | 0 | 42.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-09-15 | 19 | 211 | 36.7 | 18.8 | 24 | 10.3 | 27.7 | 0 | 43.7 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-09-16 | 19 | 110 | 36.2 | 21.9 | 24 | 19.5 | 41.4 | 0 | 58.8 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-09-17 | 2 | 11 | 34.9 | 24 | 28 | 15.9 | 34.2 | 0 | 47.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-09-18 | 0 | 0 | 35.9 | 21.1 | 21 | 15.7 | 35.6 | 0 | 52.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-09-19 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 18.3 | 23 | 14.9 | 32.8 | 0 | 51.4 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-09-20 | 2 | 15 | 36.1 | 19.2 | 25 | 14.4 | 31 | 0 | 50.8 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-09-21 | 0 | 0 | 35.5 | 21.4 | 25 | 14.8 | 31.7 | 0 | 49.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-09-22 | 0 | 0 | 35.7 | 21.3 | 25 | 15.2 | 34.6 | 0 | 49.8 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-09-23 | 3 | 8 | 37.5 | 19.1 | 20 | 11.4 | 28.4 | 0 | 45.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-09-24 | 0 | 0 | 37.3 | 21.2 | 22 | 7 | 17.6 | 0 | 44.3 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2023-09-25 | 0 | 0 | 36.6 | 21.8 | 30 | 8.2 | 21.2 | 0 | 43.4 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2023-09-26 | 0 | 0 | 36.7 | 24.1 | 33 | 8.9 | 21.6 | 0.1 | 42.2 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2023-09-27 | 0 | 0 | 33.8 | 23.2 | 45 | 8.1 | 20.5 | 0.9 | 32.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-09-28 | 0 | 0 | 32.4 | 23.3 | 48 | 11.9 | 23 | 1.5 | 6.8 | bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 10,420ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 19days
- 5 Sept 2023 – 23 Sept 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 5 Sept
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 317
- in a single hotspot: 107 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 181MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
5 Sept23 Sept
23 Sept 2023
How it evolved, day by day
5 Sept
8 Sept
13 Sept
17 Sept
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
44km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity
It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 28 Sept.
This area had burned before
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,993 ha in 2016, 4,796 ha in 2018, 3,265 ha in 2020, 4,379 ha in 2021, 116 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,851 ha that had burned before.
- 3,785 ha Natividade fire, September 2018 4,648 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,265 ha Natividade fire, September 2020 10,179 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,633 ha Natividade fire, August 2016 3,378 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,470 ha Natividade fire, September 2021 13,729 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
10,486 ha reached on 5 Sept3.2 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Built-up area0.82 ha
Residents≈ 50
Inside the perimeter there were about 0.82 hectares of built-up land and about 50 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Sept | 35.9 °C | 26 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 6 Sept | 34.6 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 7 Sept | 34.0 °C | 27 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 8 Sept | 33.1 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 9 Sept | 34.4 °C | 23 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 10 Sept | 34.7 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 11 Sept | 35.0 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 12 Sept | 34.9 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 13 Sept | 36.1 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 14 Sept | 36.3 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 15 Sept | 36.7 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Sept | 36.2 °C | 24 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 17 Sept | 34.9 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 18 Sept | 35.9 °C | 21 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 19 Sept | 36.0 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 20 Sept | 36.1 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 21 Sept | 35.5 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 22 Sept | 35.7 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 23 Sept | 37.5 °C | 20 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 24 Sept after | 37.3 °C | 22 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 25 Sept after | 36.6 °C | 30 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 26 Sept after | 36.7 °C | 33 % | 22 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 42 |
| 27 Sept after | 33.8 °C | 45 % | 20 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 33 |
| 28 Sept after | 32.4 °C | 48 % | 23 km/h | 1.5 mm | Low 7 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 40.3, a minimum humidity of 26% and 5 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 25.
FWI at the start
40.3
Minimum humidity
26 %
Days without rain
5
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Natividade fire, September 2023
10,420 ha
19 days
FWI 40.3
Min. humidity 26 %
Arraias fire, October 2019
12,392 ha
12 days
FWI 40.3
Min. humidity 28 %
119 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 7.6 mm on 22 Oct.
Arraias fire, October 2023
8,465 ha
11 days
FWI 38.6
Min. humidity 28 %
115 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.2 mm on 22 Oct.
Cavalcante fire, October 2017
11,313 ha
13 days
FWI 41.2
Min. humidity 28 %
179 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.4 mm on 28 Oct.
Paranã fire, October 2017
49,998 ha
25 days
FWI 45.7
Min. humidity 27 %
136 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.0 mm on 31 Oct.
Barreiras fire, October 2022
8,496 ha
20 days
FWI 42.5
Min. humidity 22 %
234 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.1 mm on 23 Oct.
What happened to them
- 12 days
- median duration
- 8,113 ha
- median area
- 36 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- 2.5 mm
- rain at the end (median; 16 of 25 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (10,420 ha against a median of 8,113 ha) and lasted 19 days, against 12 days.
In 9 of 25, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.5 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
1.5 mmfirst rain
28 Sept5 days after it ended
44km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 23 Sept, and on 28 Sept 1.5 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 16 of 25, with a median of 2.5 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 29 Aug 2023
After · 30 Sept 2023
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · CopernicusOn 13 September 2023 the air beside the fire reached 35 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak35 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1050 µg/m³
Optical depth0.47
WHO 15
3 Sept7 Sept11 Sept15 Sept19 Sept
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 · 317Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Natividade fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 September 2023 to 23 September 2023 (19 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 September 2023 to 16 September 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 10,420 hectares (104.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Natividade (10,486 ha, 3.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 44 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 25. Their median duration was 12 days and their median area 8,113 ha; 36 % went past 10,000 ha. In 9 of 25, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.5 mm.
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 · Emergency number and official warnings
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 16 September 2023 → 23 September 2023.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 5 September 2023 to 16 September 2023. 317 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.