Óbidos fire, 28 October 2017 Óbidos
The fire started on 28 October 2017 in Óbidos, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,398 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 273th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 1096 with a page). Number 227 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.
- Burnt area
- 8,398ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 28 Oct 2017 – 6 Nov 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 28 Oct
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 245
- in a single hotspot: 52 MW
- Danger at start
- 22
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.6 mm on 10 Nov.
This area had burned before
1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 54 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
8,460 ha reached on 28 Oct0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Oct | 34.7 °C | 35 % | 40 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 22 |
| 29 Oct | 34.0 °C | 33 % | 38 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 24 |
| 30 Oct | 35.5 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 31 Oct | 33.3 °C | 43 % | 24 km/h | 8.4 mm | Very low 3 |
| 1 Nov | 32.5 °C | 47 % | 26 km/h | 5.5 mm | Very low 2 |
| 2 Nov | 34.1 °C | 40 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 3 Nov | 35.1 °C | 32 % | 39 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 4 Nov | 35.0 °C | 32 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 5 Nov | 33.9 °C | 33 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 6 Nov | 34.3 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 7 Nov after | 32.7 °C | 47 % | 30 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 8 Nov after | 32.3 °C | 49 % | 31 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 9 Nov after | 34.7 °C | 41 % | 36 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 10 Nov after | 31.9 °C | 49 % | 37 km/h | 7.6 mm | Very low 3 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 245Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 22,307 haÓbidos23 October 2018 · 12 days · 17 km away
- 16,178 haÓbidos2 October 2026 · 8 days · 19 km away
- 48,531 haÓbidosSeptember 2023 · 35 days · 24 km away
- 22,633 haÓbidos10 October 2025 · 12 days · 24 km away
- 39,056 haÓbidosSeptember 2026 · 20 days · 26 km away
- 13,323 haOriximiná12 October 2025 · 9 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Óbidos fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 October 2017 and 6 November 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 8,398 hectares (84.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Óbidos (8,460 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, class High.
- 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
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.