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Ourilândia do Norte fire, 17 August 2017 Ourilândia do Norte, Água Azul do Norte

Out · last detection 25 Sept 2017, 04:45 UTC

The fire started on 17 August 2017 in Ourilândia do Norte, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 40 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 51,464 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 28th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 957 with a page). Number 15 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Ourilândia do Norte · 2020Bannach · 2020Ourilândia do Norte · 2022Ourilândia do Norte · 2024

Burnt area
51,464ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
40days
17 Aug 2017 – 25 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
17 Aug
2017
Heat detections
2,606
in a single hotspot: 170 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Average daily power
467MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Aug25 Sept
25 Sept 2017

How it evolved, day by day

17 Aug 2017 · 37 MW · 3 18 Aug 2017 · 197 MW · 9 19 Aug 2017 · 281 MW · 32 20 Aug 2017 · 236 MW · 46 21 Aug 2017 · 20 MW · 3 22 Aug 2017 · 195 MW · 26 23 Aug 2017 · 95 MW · 11 24 Aug 2017 · 917 MW · 64 25 Aug 2017 · 2,050 MW · 202 26 Aug 2017 · 1,703 MW · 182 27 Aug 2017 · 1,086 MW · 156 28 Aug 2017 · 526 MW · 66 29 Aug 2017 · 62 MW · 42 30 Aug 2017 · 45 MW · 9 31 Aug 2017 · 129 MW · 28 1 Sept 2017 · 139 MW · 18 2 Sept 2017 · 19 MW · 5 3 Sept 2017 · 317 MW · 43 4 Sept 2017 · 929 MW · 218 5 Sept 2017 · 1,006 MW · 144 6 Sept 2017 · 1,111 MW · 82 7 Sept 2017 · 347 MW · 76 8 Sept 2017 · 175 MW · 32 9 Sept 2017 · 125 MW · 28 10 Sept 2017 · 433 MW · 64 11 Sept 2017 · 737 MW · 66 12 Sept 2017 · 1,387 MW · 118 13 Sept 2017 · 1,706 MW · 159 14 Sept 2017 · 403 MW · 159 15 Sept 2017 · 455 MW · 74 16 Sept 2017 · 842 MW · 106 17 Sept 2017 · 271 MW · 83 18 Sept 2017 · 110 MW · 35 19 Sept 2017 · 218 MW · 84 20 Sept 2017 · 241 MW · 79 21 Sept 2017 · 40 MW · 16 22 Sept 2017 · 2 MW · 1 23 Sept 2017 · 2 MW · 1 24 Sept 2017 · 65 MW · 14 25 Sept 2017 · 27 MW · 22
17 Aug 25 Aug 2 Sept 10 Sept 18 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

34°high
48km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 76 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 33% of the area of London (515 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Ourilândia do Norte 32,467 inhabitants where it started
    43,524 ha reached on 17 Aug
    3.0 %
  2. Água Azul do Norte 18,080 inhabitants
    10,235 ha reached on 18 Aug
    1.4 %

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 2015
Built-up area3.6 ha
Residents≈ 400

Inside the perimeter there were about 3.6 hectares of built-up land and about 400 residents (GHSL 2015, 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.

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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 55 % of the area in Brazil

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
17 Aug 31.7 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Aug 33.4 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Aug 33.9 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Aug 32.1 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Aug 32.6 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Aug 31.9 °C 44 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
23 Aug 29.7 °C 42 % 45 km/h 0.6 mm High 30
24 Aug 31.8 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Aug 32.1 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Aug 32.4 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Aug 33.1 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Aug 32.1 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Aug 31.3 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Aug 33.4 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 Aug 33.5 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Sept 31.7 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Sept 30.6 °C 39 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Sept 32.3 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Sept 31.3 °C 32 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Sept 32.1 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
6 Sept 31.9 °C 33 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Sept 32.2 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Sept 31.6 °C 40 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Sept 30.8 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
10 Sept 33.1 °C 32 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
11 Sept 33.3 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Sept 32.8 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Sept 32.1 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Sept 32.7 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Sept 34.0 °C 28 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Sept 32.9 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Sept 32.5 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Sept 32.7 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Sept 33.2 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Sept 31.2 °C 43 % 38 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
21 Sept 30.4 °C 44 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm High 31
22 Sept 32.4 °C 32 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Sept 31.2 °C 41 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Sept 31.5 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
25 Sept 30.7 °C 42 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
26 Sept after 31.6 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Sept after 31.6 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Sept after 32.5 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
29 Sept after 32.1 °C 43 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Sept after 30.0 °C 53 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 25
1 Oct after 30.2 °C 48 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
2 Oct after 31.7 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Oct after 32.5 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.9 mm High 27
4 Oct after 33.8 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm High 33
5 Oct after 32.2 °C 43 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm High 33

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 30.7, a minimum humidity of 36% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 24.

FWI at the start 30.7
Minimum humidity 36 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Ourilândia do Norte fire, August 2020
3,026 ha 21 days FWI 29.0 Min. humidity 36 % 24 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 16.5 mm on 25 Sept.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

18 days
median duration
4,714 ha
median area
21 %
went past 10,000 ha
2.1 mm
rain at the end (median; 13 of 24 had it)

It was 10.9 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 40 days, against 18 days.

Only 1 of its 24 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 11 of 24, 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 2.1 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

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
48km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 25 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 13 of 24, with a median of 2.1 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.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Aug 2017
After · 2 Oct 2017

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 · 2,606Every 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 Ourilândia do Norte fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 17 August 2017 to 25 September 2017 (40 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 August 2017 to 21 September 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 51,464 hectares (514.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ourilândia do Norte (43,524 ha, 3.0 %); Água Azul do Norte (10,235 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, class Very 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.
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: 24. Their median duration was 18 days and their median area 4,714 ha; 21 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 1 of its 24 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 11 of 24, 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 2.1 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 · 3 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Area: 53,453 → 51,464 ha.
  2. Last day with fire: 21 September 2017 → 25 September 2017.
  3. Start date: 24 August 2017 → 17 August 2017.

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
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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 8 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 24 August 2017 to 21 September 2017. 2,606 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 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.