Burned area
satellite only19,219ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 6 Oct 2023 – 23 Oct 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
BR · Brazil · –
Pilão Arcado fire, October 2023 Pilão Arcado, Morro Cabeça no Tempo
Out · last detection 23 Oct 2023, 04:40 UTC
The fire started on 6 October 2023 in Pilão Arcado, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 19,219 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 28th largest in Bahia since 2016 (of 386 with a page). Number 16 in Brazil in 2023, of 430.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only18days
6 Oct 2023 to 23 Oct 2023: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 23 Oct 2023, 04:40 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only6 Oct 2023
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 6 Oct 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only695
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 243 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 6 Oct 2023 – 23 Oct 2023
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only2,420MW
Total radiative power on 9 October 2023; hotspots that day: 90.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 9 Oct 2023
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model59.0FWI · extreme
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 6 Oct 2023, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model39.2°C · 16% RH
High of 39.2 °C and minimum humidity of 16% on 20 October 2023; gusts of 46 km/h on 21 October 2023.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 6 Oct 2023 – 23 Oct 2023
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 19,219 ha
- Dates
- 6 Oct 2023 – 23 Oct 2023
- Name
- Pilão Arcado
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/pilao-arcado-2023-10?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire pilao-arcado-2023-10.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-10-06 | 21 | 236 | 37.7 | 24.7 | 25 | 19 | 42.8 | 0.1 | 59 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-10-07 | 33 | 807 | 37.2 | 24.6 | 24 | 15.2 | 34.9 | 0 | 54.8 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-10-08 | 41 | 1,089 | 37.3 | 25.5 | 24 | 15.9 | 36.7 | 0 | 54.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-10-09 | 90 | 2,420 | 37.4 | 24.3 | 24 | 16.4 | 38.5 | 0 | 50.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-10-10 | 40 | 760 | 38.7 | 25.2 | 21 | 17.4 | 40.3 | 0 | 53.9 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-10-11 | 75 | 1,796 | 37.5 | 24.5 | 20 | 18.1 | 38.5 | 0 | 51.7 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-10-12 | 44 | 718 | 37.1 | 23 | 20 | 16.2 | 37.1 | 0 | 46.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-10-13 | 80 | 1,691 | 38.8 | 23 | 17 | 15.4 | 28.8 | 0 | 49.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-10-14 | 44 | 644 | 38.1 | 24.8 | 23 | 15.7 | 34.2 | 0 | 56.7 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-10-15 | 31 | 453 | 36.8 | 24 | 23 | 22.5 | 45 | 0 | 60.5 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-10-16 | 43 | 739 | 36.8 | 23.8 | 15 | 20.9 | 45 | 0 | 62.4 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-10-17 | 27 | 261 | 36.5 | 22.2 | 12 | 20.1 | 45.4 | 0 | 69.8 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-10-18 | 50 | 428 | 37.5 | 21.6 | 14 | 16.9 | 40.7 | 0 | 59.2 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-10-19 | 25 | 261 | 39 | 20.7 | 11 | 16.2 | 38.2 | 0 | 58.5 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-10-20 | 26 | 700 | 39.2 | 23.2 | 16 | 18.4 | 40.7 | 0 | 65.8 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-10-21 | 10 | 99 | 38.4 | 24.6 | 20 | 21.2 | 45.7 | 0 | 65.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-10-22 | 13 | 332 | 38.1 | 25.1 | 21 | 20.2 | 45.4 | 0 | 65.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-10-23 | 2 | 3 | 35.8 | 25.8 | 29 | 18.7 | 43.6 | 0 | 56 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-10-24 | 0 | 0 | 36.8 | 25.1 | 26 | 18.1 | 39.2 | 0 | 49.1 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2023-10-25 | 0 | 0 | 36.3 | 24.9 | 32 | 8.7 | 24.1 | 0.1 | 37.8 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-10-26 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 25.4 | 36 | 11.5 | 31.3 | 0.6 | 32.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-10-27 | 0 | 0 | 37.6 | 24.8 | 28 | 10.4 | 27.7 | 0.1 | 36.8 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-10-28 | 0 | 0 | 37.7 | 24.9 | 24 | 22.8 | 51.1 | 0 | 55.7 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-10-29 | 0 | 0 | 38.1 | 23.9 | 16 | 22 | 48.6 | 0 | 61 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-10-30 | 0 | 0 | 39.3 | 22.8 | 13 | 18.4 | 40.7 | 0 | 56.7 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-10-31 | 0 | 0 | 39.2 | 23 | 18 | 15.6 | 34.6 | 0 | 52.8 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-11-01 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 23.2 | 21 | 8.7 | 29.2 | 0 | 50 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2023-11-02 | 0 | 0 | 31.9 | 23.7 | 49 | 11.5 | 29.9 | 10 | 7.2 | bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 19,219ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 18days
- 6 Oct 2023 – 23 Oct 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 6 Oct
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 695
- in a single hotspot: 243 MW
- Danger at start
- 59
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 747MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
6 Oct23 Oct
23 Oct 2023
How it evolved, day by day
6 Oct
9 Oct
14 Oct
18 Oct
22 Oct
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
46km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 10.0 mm on 2 Nov.
This area had burned before
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 896 ha in 2016, 3,470 ha in 2017, 4,760 ha in 2018, 9,029 ha in 2020, 8,500 ha in 2021, 4,050 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 17,618 ha that had burned before.
- 8,500 ha Morro Cabeça no Tempo fire, September 2021 120,828 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,092 ha Pilão Arcado fire, September 2020 62,591 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,102 ha Pilão Arcado fire, September 2018 12,743 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,964 ha Pilão Arcado fire, August 2022 13,748 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,190 ha Pilão Arcado fire, September 2017 4,606 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,097 ha Pilão Arcado fire, October 2017 6,047 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
16,933 ha reached on 6 Oct1.4 %
-
Morro Cabeça no Tempo 4,377 inhabitants2,396 ha reached on 9 Oct1.1 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Built-up area0.10 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there were about 0.10 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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)
Started with 60 days without rain: 55 % of the area in Brazil
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Oct | 37.7 °C | 25 % | 43 km/h | 0.1 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 7 Oct | 37.2 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 8 Oct | 37.3 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 9 Oct | 37.4 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 10 Oct | 38.7 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 11 Oct | 37.5 °C | 20 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 12 Oct | 37.1 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 13 Oct | 38.8 °C | 17 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 14 Oct | 38.1 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 15 Oct | 36.8 °C | 23 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 16 Oct | 36.8 °C | 15 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 17 Oct | 36.5 °C | 12 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 18 Oct | 37.5 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 19 Oct | 39.0 °C | 11 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 20 Oct | 39.2 °C | 16 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 21 Oct | 38.4 °C | 20 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 22 Oct | 38.1 °C | 21 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 23 Oct | 35.8 °C | 29 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 24 Oct after | 36.8 °C | 26 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 25 Oct after | 36.3 °C | 32 % | 24 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 38 |
| 26 Oct after | 35.0 °C | 36 % | 31 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 33 |
| 27 Oct after | 37.6 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 37 |
| 28 Oct after | 37.7 °C | 24 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 29 Oct after | 38.1 °C | 16 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 30 Oct after | 39.3 °C | 13 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 31 Oct after | 39.2 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 1 Nov after | 39.0 °C | 21 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 2 Nov after | 31.9 °C | 49 % | 30 km/h | 10.0 mm | Low 7 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 59.0, a minimum humidity of 25% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 40.
FWI at the start
59.0
Minimum humidity
25 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Pilão Arcado fire, October 2023
19,219 ha
18 days
FWI 59.0
Min. humidity 25 %
Barra fire, September 2023
5,014 ha
20 days
FWI 59.2
Min. humidity 24 %
105 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Manoel Emídio fire, September 2016
3,892 ha
8 days
FWI 58.3
Min. humidity 25 %
162 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 19.6 mm on 26 Sept.
Pilão Arcado fire, October 2017
13,298 ha
15 days
FWI 58.0
Min. humidity 27 %
24 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 13.6 mm on 31 Oct.
Cristino Castro fire, September 2025
3,535 ha
13 days
FWI 58.5
Min. humidity 24 %
124 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Morro Cabeça no Tempo fire, September 2018
6,744 ha
14 days
FWI 60.2
Min. humidity 23 %
30 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 13 days
- median duration
- 4,981 ha
- median area
- 22 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- 5.3 mm
- rain at the end (median; 14 of 40 had it)
It was 3.9 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 18 days, against 13 days.
Only 3 of its 40 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 26 of 40, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.3 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
10.0 mmfirst rain
2 Nov10 days after it ended
46km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 23 Oct, and on 2 Nov 10.0 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 14 of 40, with a median of 5.3 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 29 Sept 2023
After · 30 Oct 2023
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · CopernicusOn 19 October 2023 the air beside the fire reached 42 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak42 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1060 µg/m³
Optical depth0.79
WHO 15
4 Oct9 Oct14 Oct19 Oct24 Oct
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 · 695Every 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
- 62,591 haPilão ArcadoSeptember 2020 · 27 days · 14 km away
- 20,542 haPilão ArcadoAugust 2016 · 34 days · 19 km away
- 26,249 haPilão Arcado4 September 2023 · 30 days · 22 km away
- 19,822 haPilão ArcadoSeptember 2026 · 8 days · 28 km away
- 20,506 haMorro Cabeça no TempoAugust 2018 · 22 days · 32 km away
- 120,828 haMorro Cabeça no TempoSeptember 2021 · 39 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Pilão Arcado fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 October 2023 and 23 October 2023: 18 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 19,219 hectares (192.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pilão Arcado (16,933 ha, 1.4 %); Morro Cabeça no Tempo (2,396 ha, 1.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 70, 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 40. Their median duration was 13 days and their median area 4,981 ha; 22 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 3 of its 40 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 26 of 40, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.3 mm.
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 · Emergency number and official warnings
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 695 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.