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Parnaguá fire, November 2016 Parnaguá

Out · last detection 7 Nov 2016, 03:43 UTC

The fire started on 1 November 2016 in Parnaguá, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,968 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 513th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 804 with a page). Number 406 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

Burnt area
3,968ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
1 Nov 2016 – 9 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
1 Nov
2016
Heat detections
273
in a single hotspot: 570 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
5.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Nov9 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

1234567

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

39°high
50km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 11.5 mm on 11 Nov.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Parnaguá 10,103 inhabitants where it started
    3,990 ha reached on 26 Oct
    1.2 %

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)
26 Oct 38.6 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Oct 38.5 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Oct 36.5 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Oct 38.0 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Oct 36.4 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Oct 36.5 °C 21 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Nov 37.3 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Nov 38.0 °C 16 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Nov 36.9 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Nov 37.4 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Nov 36.3 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Nov 36.8 °C 19 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Nov 35.6 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Nov 33.7 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Nov 34.6 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Nov after 35.7 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.4 mm High 36
11 Nov after 34.4 °C 38 % 33 km/h 11.5 mm Low 5

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Oct 2016
After · 16 Nov 2016

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 · 273Every 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 Parnaguá fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 November 2016 and 9 November 2016: 9 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 3,968 hectares (39.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Parnaguá (3,990 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.

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

Satellite cross-check

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.

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.