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Ourilândia do Norte fire, August 2023 Ourilândia do Norte

Out · last detection 21 Aug 2023, 16:58 UTC

The fire started on 13 August 2023 in Ourilândia do Norte, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,188 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 569th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 957 with a page). Number 234 in Brazil in 2023, of 430.

The power measured by the satellite is low (23.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Santana do Araguaia · 2024São Félix do Xingu · 2024Ourilândia do Norte · 2017Ourilândia do Norte · 2024

Burnt area
4,188ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
13 Aug 2023 – 21 Aug 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
13 Aug
2023
Heat detections
143
in a single hotspot: 23 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
149MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Aug21 Aug
21 Aug 2023

How it evolved, day by day

14 Aug 2023 · 68 MW · 7 15 Aug 2023 · 173 MW · 24 16 Aug 2023 · 163 MW · 14 17 Aug 2023 · 262 MW · 27 18 Aug 2023 · 339 MW · 35 19 Aug 2023 · 46 MW · 15 20 Aug 2023 · 124 MW · 18 21 Aug 2023 · 19 MW · 3
14 Aug 16 Aug 18 Aug 20 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

36°high
36km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.5 mm on 29 Aug.

This area had burned before

76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,092 ha in 2017, 1,696 ha in 2019, 1 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,165 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.6% of the area of London (42 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
    4,222 ha reached on 14 Aug
    0.3 %

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 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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)
13 Aug 34.5 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Aug 34.5 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Aug 33.8 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
16 Aug 33.2 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Aug 34.0 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Aug 34.5 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Aug 35.1 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Aug 35.5 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Aug 36.2 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Aug after 33.7 °C 34 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Aug after 32.7 °C 47 % 33 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
24 Aug after 32.6 °C 45 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Aug after 30.6 °C 56 % 25 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 19
26 Aug after 32.7 °C 47 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
27 Aug after 32.4 °C 45 % 20 km/h 0.1 mm High 21
28 Aug after 33.0 °C 42 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
29 Aug after 31.6 °C 50 % 32 km/h 8.5 mm High 29

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 48.0, a minimum humidity of 22% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 33.

FWI at the start 48.0
Minimum humidity 22 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Santana do Araguaia fire, September 2024
5,155 ha 12 days FWI 48.9 Min. humidity 22 % 177 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.3 mm on 30 Sept.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

19 days
median duration
7,974 ha
median area
48 %
went past 10,000 ha
2.2 mm
rain at the end (median; 26 of 33 had it)

It stayed below its twins: 4,188 ha against a median of 7,974 ha. It lasted 9 days, against 19 days.

In 7 of 33, 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 2.2 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

8.5 mmfirst rain
29 Aug8 days after it ended
36km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 21 Aug, and on 29 Aug 8.5 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 26 of 33, with a median of 2.2 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 · 6 Aug 2023
After · 28 Aug 2023

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 · Copernicus

On 18 August 2023 the air beside the fire reached 16 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak16 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1023 µg/m³
Optical depth0.27
12 Aug15 Aug18 Aug21 Aug24 Aug
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 143Every 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 13 August 2023 to 21 August 2023 (9 days). The perimeter dates it from 14 August 2023 to 21 August 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,188 hectares (41.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ourilândia do Norte (4,222 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 36 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.
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: 33. Their median duration was 19 days and their median area 7,974 ha; 48 % went past 10,000 ha. In 7 of 33, 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 2.2 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. Start date: 14 August 2023 → 13 August 2023.

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 14 August 2023 to 21 August 2023. 143 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 2025, 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.