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Picos fire, August 2019 Sussuapara, Picos

Out · last detection 17 Sept 2019, 04:07 UTC

The fire started on 19 August 2019 in Picos, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,752 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 550th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 803 with a page). Number 695 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.

Burnt area
3,752ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
30days
19 Aug 2019 – 17 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
19 Aug
2019
Heat detections
277
in a single hotspot: 67 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Aug17 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

19202122232425262728293031124567891011121314151617

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
52km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 54 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Sussuapara 6,220 inhabitants
    3,467 ha reached on 18 Aug
    17 %
  2. Picos 83,090 inhabitants where it started
    309 ha reached on 25 Aug
    0.5 %

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)
12 Aug 35.2 °C 33 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Aug 34.7 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Aug 36.5 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Aug 33.4 °C 35 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
16 Aug 33.9 °C 31 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Aug 31.6 °C 43 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Aug 35.5 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Aug 36.0 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Aug 37.0 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Aug 37.1 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Aug 37.0 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Aug 34.9 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Aug 36.0 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Aug 35.8 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Aug 34.7 °C 31 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Aug 35.0 °C 33 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Aug 34.7 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Aug 35.0 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Aug 35.7 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Aug 35.1 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Sept 36.2 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Sept 36.8 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Sept 36.2 °C 32 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Sept 36.5 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Sept 37.3 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Sept 36.0 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 Sept 35.5 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
8 Sept 35.9 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
9 Sept 35.9 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
10 Sept 36.4 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
11 Sept 36.7 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Sept 37.6 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Sept 38.0 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Sept 37.2 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Sept 37.1 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Sept 36.3 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Sept 36.9 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Sept after 36.3 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Sept after 37.8 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Sept after 38.3 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
21 Sept after 39.1 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Sept after 37.8 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Sept after 38.0 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
24 Sept after 36.5 °C 28 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Sept after 37.2 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Sept after 37.4 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Sept after 38.4 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Sept after 39.4 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
29 Sept after 36.8 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
30 Sept after 36.7 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 44
1 Oct after 37.6 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Oct after 36.2 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Oct after 37.6 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Aug 2019
After · 24 Sept 2019

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 · 277Every 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 Picos fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 August 2019 and 17 September 2019: 30 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 3,752 hectares (37.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sussuapara (3,467 ha, 17 %); Picos (309 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.1 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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
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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.