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Oeiras fire, 3 August 2016 Oeiras, Colônia do Piauí

Out · last detection 13 Aug 2016, 16:32 UTC

The fire started on 3 August 2016 in Oeiras, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,694 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 573th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 803 with a page). Number 459 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

Burnt area
3,694ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
3 Aug 2016 – 13 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
3 Aug
2016
Heat detections
154
in a single hotspot: 261 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Aug13 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

345678910111213

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
52km/h · peak gust
15%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. Oeiras 38,161 inhabitants where it started
    3,536 ha reached on 3 Aug
    1.3 %
  2. Colônia do Piauí 6,994 inhabitants
    183 ha reached on 8 Aug
    0.2 %

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)
3 Aug 35.0 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Aug 34.4 °C 19 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
5 Aug 34.3 °C 26 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Aug 34.9 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Aug 35.5 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
8 Aug 35.8 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Aug 35.8 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Aug 37.3 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Aug 37.2 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Aug 37.3 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Aug 35.6 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Aug after 35.7 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Aug after 37.0 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Aug after 36.9 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Aug after 38.9 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Aug after 37.5 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Aug after 35.4 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
20 Aug after 35.2 °C 31 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 Aug after 36.4 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Aug after 39.5 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Aug after 36.6 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Jul 2016
After · 20 Aug 2016

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 · 154Every 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 Oeiras fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 August 2016 and 13 August 2016: 11 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 3,694 hectares (36.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Oeiras (3,536 ha, 1.3 %); Colônia do Piauí (183 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.

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.