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Ourilândia do Norte fire, 16 August 2019 Ourilândia do Norte

Out · last detection 30 Aug 2019, 17:22 UTC

The fire started on 16 August 2019 in Ourilândia do Norte, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,430 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 119th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 957 with a page). Number 92 in Brazil in 2019, of 973.

Burnt area
14,430ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
20days
16 Aug 2019 – 4 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
16 Aug
2019
Heat detections
483
in a single hotspot: 46 MW
Danger at start
60
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
168MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Aug4 Sept
30 Aug 2019

How it evolved, day by day

16 Aug 2019 · 498 MW · 52 17 Aug 2019 · 168 MW · 34 18 Aug 2019 · 335 MW · 76 19 Aug 2019 · 288 MW · 76 20 Aug 2019 · 299 MW · 66 21 Aug 2019 · 178 MW · 33 22 Aug 2019 · 276 MW · 69 23 Aug 2019 · 64 MW · 20 24 Aug 2019 · 33 MW · 6 26 Aug 2019 · 14 MW · 4 27 Aug 2019 · 106 MW · 16 28 Aug 2019 · 70 MW · 22 29 Aug 2019 · 10 MW · 2 30 Aug 2019 · 12 MW · 7
16 Aug 19 Aug 22 Aug 26 Aug 29 Aug

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
48km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 37 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.0 mm on 6 Sept.

This area had burned before

44% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,690 ha in 2016, 667 ha in 2017.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 9.1% of the area of London (144 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
    14,531 ha reached on 16 Aug
    1.0 %

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 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
16 Aug 32.5 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
17 Aug 32.3 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Aug 32.0 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Aug 34.4 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Aug 34.9 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Aug 33.5 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Aug 33.7 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Aug 33.2 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Aug 31.0 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
25 Aug 32.1 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Aug 33.5 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Aug 34.2 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Aug 34.2 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Aug 34.5 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Aug 35.0 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 Aug 33.6 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Sept 34.1 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Sept 34.3 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Sept 34.4 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Sept 34.2 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Sept after 33.6 °C 42 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Sept after 32.5 °C 43 % 37 km/h 3.0 mm High 29

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 60.5, a minimum humidity of 29% and 37 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 68.

FWI at the start 60.5
Minimum humidity 29 %
Days without rain 37
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

São Félix do Xingu fire, August 2021
5,712 ha 17 days FWI 53.4 Min. humidity 29 % 124 km away, in 2021

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.0 mm on 30 Aug.

What happened to them

16 days
median duration
6,928 ha
median area
32 %
went past 10,000 ha
3.4 mm
rain at the end (median; 38 of 68 had it)

It was 2.1 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 20 days, against 16 days.

Only 11 of its 68 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 30 of 68, 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 3.4 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

3.0 mmfirst rain
6 Sept2 days after it ended
48km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 4 Sept, and on 6 Sept 3.0 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 38 of 68, with a median of 3.4 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 · 9 Aug 2019
After · 11 Sept 2019

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 · 483Every 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 16 August 2019 to 4 September 2019 (20 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 August 2019 to 28 August 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 14,430 hectares (144.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ourilândia do Norte (14,531 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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: 68. Their median duration was 16 days and their median area 6,928 ha; 32 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 11 of its 68 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 30 of 68, 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 3.4 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 28 August 2019 → 4 September 2019.

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 16 August 2019 to 28 August 2019. 483 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 2020, 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.