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Óbidos fire, 23 October 2018 Óbidos, Almeirim

Out · last detection 4 Nov 2018, 04:49 UTC

The fire started on 23 October 2018 in Óbidos, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 22,307 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 84th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 1095 with a page). Number 6 in Brazil in 2018, of 291.

Burnt area
22,307ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
23 Oct 2018 – 3 Nov 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
23 Oct
2018
Heat detections
523
in a single hotspot: 110 MW
Danger at start
9
Low · FWI index
Energy released
4.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 Nov 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Oct3 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

2324252627282930311234

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
47km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 4 Nov.

This area had burned before

32% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,142 ha in 2016, 27 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Óbidos 52,229 inhabitants where it started
    21,725 ha reached on 23 Oct
    0.8 %
  2. Almeirim 35,114 inhabitants
    744 ha reached on 25 Oct
    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)
19 Oct 33.8 °C 45 % 38 km/h 2.3 mm Low 9
20 Oct 32.6 °C 46 % 28 km/h 2.1 mm Low 6
21 Oct 35.0 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
22 Oct 34.1 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
23 Oct 33.7 °C 37 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
24 Oct 33.5 °C 35 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
25 Oct 33.7 °C 36 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
26 Oct 33.2 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
27 Oct 33.5 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
28 Oct 32.4 °C 47 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 22
29 Oct 32.5 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 17
30 Oct 34.4 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.5 mm High 22
31 Oct 34.5 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 Nov 33.7 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
2 Nov 34.1 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
3 Nov 33.2 °C 46 % 34 km/h 0.4 mm High 23
4 Nov after 32.3 °C 48 % 28 km/h 2.8 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Oct 2018
After · 10 Nov 2018

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 · 523Every 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 Óbidos fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 October 2018 and 3 November 2018: 12 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 22,307 hectares (223.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Óbidos (21,725 ha, 0.8 %); Almeirim (744 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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
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.