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Pedro Afonso fire, October 2017 Bom Jesus do Tocantins, Pedro Afonso

Out · last detection 19 Oct 2017, 16:31 UTC

The fire started on 17 October 2017 in Pedro Afonso, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,906 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 846th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 666 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
3,906ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
17 Oct 2017 – 19 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
17 Oct
2017
Heat detections
123
in a single hotspot: 112 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Oct19 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

171819

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
45km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.1 mm on 28 Oct.

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 261 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Bom Jesus do Tocantins 4,038 inhabitants
    2,213 ha reached on 17 Oct
    1.7 %
  2. Pedro Afonso 14,055 inhabitants where it started
    1,718 ha reached on 14 Oct
    0.8 %

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)
14 Oct 38.6 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Oct 38.0 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.6 mm High 31
16 Oct 30.6 °C 64 % 32 km/h 13.4 mm Very low 3
17 Oct 35.3 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 15
18 Oct 38.1 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Oct 37.3 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Oct after 37.9 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Oct after 40.0 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Oct after 39.4 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Oct after 39.1 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Oct after 39.6 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Oct after 38.5 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Oct after 37.0 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Oct after 34.4 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Oct after 30.3 °C 58 % 32 km/h 6.1 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Oct 2017
After · 26 Oct 2017

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 · 123Every 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 Pedro Afonso fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 October 2017 and 19 October 2017: 3 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 3,906 hectares (39.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bom Jesus do Tocantins (2,213 ha, 1.7 %); Pedro Afonso (1,718 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.