How long did the Pacajá fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 September 2022 and 27 September 2022: 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 3,399 hectares (34.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Pacajá (3,421 ha, 0.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class 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.

BR · Brazil · 2022-09-17 → 2022-09-27

Pacajá fire, September 2022 Pacajá

Out · last detection 28 Sept 2022, 04:51 UTC

The fire started on 17 September 2022 in Pacajá, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,399 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 901th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 1095 with a page). Number 548 in Brazil in 2022, of 687.

Burnt area: 3,399ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 11days; 17 Sept 2022 – 27 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 17 Sept; 2022
Heat detections: 168; in a single hotspot: 255 MW
Danger at start: 15; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 3.1GW; sum of detected power

Play back 28 Sept 2022

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Sept27 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021222324252728

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

39km/h · peak gust

39%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 9 Oct.

This area had burned before

3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 88 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

Pacajá 41,097 inhabitants where it started

3,421 ha reached on 17 Sept

0.3 %

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)
13 Sept	34.4 °C	46 %	29 km/h	1.7 mm	Moderate 15
14 Sept	35.3 °C	43 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
15 Sept	35.9 °C	41 %	28 km/h	0.4 mm	High 25
16 Sept	34.9 °C	49 %	30 km/h	0.2 mm	High 26
17 Sept	34.1 °C	45 %	33 km/h	0.2 mm	High 26
18 Sept	33.6 °C	48 %	34 km/h	0.6 mm	High 24
19 Sept	35.1 °C	40 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	High 24
20 Sept	35.5 °C	39 %	34 km/h	0.1 mm	High 27
21 Sept	34.5 °C	42 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
22 Sept	34.8 °C	41 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
23 Sept	35.6 °C	46 %	32 km/h	0.2 mm	High 28
24 Sept	35.4 °C	42 %	28 km/h	0.3 mm	High 27
25 Sept	34.8 °C	46 %	31 km/h	0.1 mm	High 28
26 Sept	33.2 °C	48 %	35 km/h	4.6 mm	Low 7
27 Sept	35.3 °C	41 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
28 Sept after	35.9 °C	39 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
29 Sept after	35.2 °C	44 %	37 km/h	5.2 mm	Low 7
30 Sept after	34.3 °C	52 %	36 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 15
1 Oct after	34.3 °C	47 %	38 km/h	0.4 mm	Moderate 20
2 Oct after	33.8 °C	47 %	31 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 20
3 Oct after	34.0 °C	48 %	28 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 20
4 Oct after	33.9 °C	47 %	30 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 19
5 Oct after	35.2 °C	42 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
6 Oct after	32.4 °C	53 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
7 Oct after	33.5 °C	48 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
8 Oct after	35.3 °C	40 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
9 Oct after	34.1 °C	52 %	30 km/h	1.0 mm	Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 10 Sept 2022

After · 4 Oct 2022

Before After

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 24 September 2022 the air beside the fire reached 263 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 120: 8.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak263 µg/m³

Days over the guideline16 days

PM10375 µg/m³

Optical depth0.87

WHO 15

15161718192021222324252627282930

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 · 168Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Pacajá fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 September 2022 and 27 September 2022: 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 3,399 hectares (34.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Pacajá (3,421 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class 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.

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

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned