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Pintópolis fire, October 2017 Pintópolis, São Romão, São Francisco

Out · last detection 18 Oct 2017, 16:48 UTC

The fire started on 11 October 2017 in Pintópolis, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,280 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 181th largest in Minas Gerais since 2016 (of 227 with a page). Number 867 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
3,280ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
11 Oct 2017 – 18 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
4
municipalities
Started on
11 Oct
2017
Heat detections
230
in a single hotspot: 258 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
7.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Oct18 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1112131415161718

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
45km/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: 3.4 mm on 29 Oct.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Pintópolis 7,084 inhabitants where it started
    1,643 ha reached on 11 Oct
    1.3 %
  2. São Romão 10,315 inhabitants
    1,633 ha reached on 12 Oct
    0.7 %
  3. São Francisco 52,762 inhabitants
    12 ha
    0.0 %
  4. Icaraí de Minas 10,677 inhabitants
    10 ha
    0.0 %

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)
11 Oct 37.1 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
12 Oct 37.9 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Oct 37.6 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
14 Oct 38.6 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Oct 41.4 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
16 Oct 37.3 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Oct 35.6 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Oct 34.7 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Oct after 35.6 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Oct after 38.1 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Oct after 39.1 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Oct after 40.2 °C 11 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
23 Oct after 37.8 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
24 Oct after 36.2 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
25 Oct after 37.1 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Oct after 37.4 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Oct after 39.5 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.4 mm Extreme 50
28 Oct after 34.9 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Oct after 36.8 °C 29 % 29 km/h 3.4 mm Moderate 20

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Oct 2017
After · 25 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 · 230Every 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 Pintópolis fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 October 2017 and 18 October 2017: 8 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 3,280 hectares (32.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Pintópolis (1,643 ha, 1.3 %); São Romão (1,633 ha, 0.7 %); São Francisco (12 ha, 0.0 %); Icaraí de Minas (10 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.4 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.