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Passos fire, September 2020 Passos, Itaú de Minas

Out · last detection 10 Sept 2020, 16:09 UTC

The fire started on 5 September 2020 in Passos, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,278 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 182th largest in Minas Gerais since 2016 (of 227 with a page). Number 845 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area
3,278ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
5 Sept 2020 – 10 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
5 Sept
2020
Heat detections
155
in a single hotspot: 191 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Sept10 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

5678910

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
38km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 12.1 mm on 21 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Passos 111,939 inhabitants where it started
    3,154 ha reached on 5 Sept
    2.4 %
  2. Itaú de Minas 14,406 inhabitants
    142 ha reached on 7 Sept
    0.9 %

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)
5 Sept 31.2 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
6 Sept 31.2 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Sept 32.1 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Sept 33.0 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Sept 33.0 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Sept 33.8 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Sept after 34.0 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Sept after 33.3 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Sept after 31.0 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Sept after 31.4 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Sept after 30.6 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
16 Sept after 30.8 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Sept after 33.0 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Sept after 34.3 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Sept after 32.1 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Sept after 26.7 °C 45 % 30 km/h 0.4 mm High 29
21 Sept after 24.9 °C 52 % 36 km/h 12.1 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Aug 2020
After · 17 Sept 2020

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 · 155Every 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 Passos fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 September 2020 and 10 September 2020: 6 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 3,278 hectares (32.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Passos (3,154 ha, 2.4 %); Itaú de Minas (142 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, class Very 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

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.