Óbidos fire, August 2023 Óbidos, Oriximiná
The fire started on 27 August 2023 in Óbidos, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 24,709 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 76th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 1095 with a page). Number 13 in Brazil in 2023, of 431.
- Burnt area
- 24,709ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 27 Aug 2023 – 10 Sept 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 27 Aug
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 816
- in a single hotspot: 207 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 6.8GW
- 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 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.5 mm on 11 Sept.
This area had burned before
84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 9,469 ha in 2016, 7,325 ha in 2017, 3,582 ha in 2018, 2,426 ha in 2019, 11,856 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 20,821 ha that had burned before.
- 10,507 ha Oriximiná fire, October 2020 14,153 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,699 ha Óbidos fire, November 2016 9,748 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,016 ha Óbidos fire, October 2017 8,878 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,582 ha Óbidos fire, October 2018 4,711 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,890 ha Óbidos fire, October 2017 6,671 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
24,879 ha reached on 27 Aug0.9 %
-
Oriximiná 20,136 inhabitants6 ha reached on 28 Aug0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Aug | 33.7 °C | 42 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 28 Aug | 34.1 °C | 36 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 29 Aug | 33.4 °C | 37 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 30 Aug | 33.7 °C | 36 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 31 Aug | 33.7 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 1 Sept | 33.6 °C | 37 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 2 Sept | 33.7 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 3 Sept | 32.9 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 4 Sept | 33.6 °C | 36 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 5 Sept | 33.8 °C | 37 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 6 Sept | 34.0 °C | 40 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 7 Sept | 33.8 °C | 40 % | 31 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 27 |
| 8 Sept | 33.4 °C | 41 % | 40 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 30 |
| 9 Sept | 33.9 °C | 36 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 10 Sept | 34.3 °C | 40 % | 45 km/h | 2.3 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 11 Sept after | 32.4 °C | 47 % | 37 km/h | 5.5 mm | Low 6 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 10 September 2023 the air beside the fire reached 32 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 816Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 18,242 haÓbidos21 October 2025 · 16 days · 4 km away
- 22,633 haÓbidos10 October 2025 · 12 days · 16 km away
- 48,531 haÓbidosSeptember 2023 · 35 days · 17 km away
- 39,056 haÓbidosSeptember 2026 · 20 days · 18 km away
- 33,649 haOriximiná19 September 2026 · 29 days · 22 km away
- 22,307 haÓbidos23 October 2018 · 12 days · 22 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Óbidos fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 August 2023 and 10 September 2023: 15 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 24,709 hectares (247.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Óbidos (24,879 ha, 0.9 %); Oriximiná (6 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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.