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Ourilândia do Norte fire, 19 August 2017 Ourilândia do Norte

Out · last detection 8 Sept 2017, 17:41 UTC

The fire started on 19 August 2017 in Ourilândia do Norte, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,574 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 728th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 957 with a page). Number 764 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Compare with…

Suggestions: São Félix do Xingu · 2020Cumaru do Norte · 2024Ourilândia do Norte · 2020Ourilândia do Norte · 2024

Burnt area
3,574ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
19 Aug 2017 – 8 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
19 Aug
2017
Heat detections
123
in a single hotspot: 52 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
59MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Aug8 Sept
8 Sept 2017

How it evolved, day by day

19 Aug 2017 · 1 MW · 1 20 Aug 2017 · 38 MW · 7 22 Aug 2017 · 88 MW · 12 23 Aug 2017 · 19 MW · 2 24 Aug 2017 · 33 MW · 3 25 Aug 2017 · 97 MW · 6 26 Aug 2017 · 168 MW · 12 27 Aug 2017 · 138 MW · 17 28 Aug 2017 · 106 MW · 13 29 Aug 2017 · 4 MW · 3 31 Aug 2017 · 44 MW · 11 1 Sept 2017 · 43 MW · 5 4 Sept 2017 · 68 MW · 13 5 Sept 2017 · 92 MW · 15 7 Sept 2017 · 6 MW · 2 8 Sept 2017 · 3 MW · 1
19 Aug 26 Aug 4 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

35°high
47km/h · peak gust
26%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.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.3% of the area of London (36 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
    3,592 ha reached on 19 Aug
    0.2 %

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 area0.43 ha
Residents≈ 50

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.43 hectares of built-up land and about 50 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)
19 Aug 34.6 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Aug 32.8 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Aug 33.1 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Aug 33.0 °C 44 % 23 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
23 Aug 30.6 °C 47 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 43
24 Aug 32.7 °C 31 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Aug 32.5 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Aug 33.0 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Aug 34.0 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Aug 32.7 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Aug 32.3 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Aug 34.2 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Aug 34.1 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Sept 32.7 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Sept 31.8 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 43
3 Sept 33.2 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
4 Sept 32.2 °C 32 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
5 Sept 32.8 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
6 Sept 32.7 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
7 Sept 33.2 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 51
8 Sept 32.8 °C 42 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Sept after 31.8 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 45
10 Sept after 34.0 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Sept after 34.1 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Sept after 33.6 °C 31 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Sept after 32.6 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Sept after 34.2 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Sept after 34.9 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 Sept after 33.8 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
17 Sept after 32.9 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
18 Sept after 33.5 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 39.7, a minimum humidity of 30% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 34.

FWI at the start 39.7
Minimum humidity 30 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

São Félix do Xingu fire, August 2020
5,084 ha 18 days FWI 38.1 Min. humidity 29 % 145 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.3 mm on 22 Sept.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

19 days
median duration
5,000 ha
median area
24 %
went past 10,000 ha
2.4 mm
rain at the end (median; 18 of 34 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (3,574 ha against a median of 5,000 ha) and lasted 21 days, against 19 days.

In 16 of 34, 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 2.4 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
47km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 8 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 18 of 34, with a median of 2.4 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 · 12 Aug 2017
After · 15 Sept 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 · 123Every 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 19 August 2017 to 8 September 2017 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 August 2017 to 7 September 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,574 hectares (35.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ourilândia do Norte (3,592 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.
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: 34. Their median duration was 19 days and their median area 5,000 ha; 24 % went past 10,000 ha. In 16 of 34, 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 2.4 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 7 September 2017 → 8 September 2017.
  2. Start date: 22 August 2017 → 19 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.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 22 August 2017 to 7 September 2017. 123 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.