How long did the Pium fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 July 2016 and 14 August 2016: 28 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 14,790 hectares (147.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Pium (14,883 ha, 1.5 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.

BR · Brazil · 2016-07-18 → 2016-08-14

Pium fire, 18 July 2016 Pium

Out · last detection 14 Aug 2016, 16:12 UTC

The fire started on 18 July 2016 in Pium, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,790 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 108th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 40 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

Burnt area: 14,790ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 28days; 18 Jul 2016 – 14 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 18 Jul; 2016
Heat detections: 767; in a single hotspot: 192 MW
Danger at start: 38; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 11.3GW; sum of detected power

Play back 14 Aug 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jul14 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1819202122232426282930311234567891011121314

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

44km/h · peak gust

16%lowest humidity

It had gone 35 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

Pium 7,128 inhabitants where it started

14,883 ha reached on 18 Jul

1.5 %

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)
18 Jul	35.7 °C	28 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
19 Jul	37.0 °C	24 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
20 Jul	36.1 °C	30 %	16 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
21 Jul	35.8 °C	27 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
22 Jul	35.7 °C	27 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
23 Jul	35.4 °C	31 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
24 Jul	34.7 °C	27 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
25 Jul	34.9 °C	29 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
26 Jul	35.7 °C	22 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
27 Jul	34.8 °C	27 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
28 Jul	35.1 °C	24 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
29 Jul	36.4 °C	24 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
30 Jul	34.9 °C	26 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
31 Jul	33.6 °C	27 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
1 Aug	34.8 °C	28 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
2 Aug	34.5 °C	27 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
3 Aug	36.0 °C	25 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
4 Aug	36.9 °C	25 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
5 Aug	36.3 °C	24 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
6 Aug	35.9 °C	23 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
7 Aug	36.7 °C	25 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
8 Aug	37.2 °C	21 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
9 Aug	37.2 °C	23 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
10 Aug	38.3 °C	18 %	14 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
11 Aug	38.6 °C	16 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
12 Aug	38.2 °C	21 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
13 Aug	37.1 °C	32 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
14 Aug	36.0 °C	36 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
15 Aug after	36.4 °C	37 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
16 Aug after	37.5 °C	29 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
17 Aug after	37.5 °C	29 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
18 Aug after	38.7 °C	24 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
19 Aug after	38.2 °C	29 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
20 Aug after	36.8 °C	32 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
21 Aug after	38.2 °C	26 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
22 Aug after	36.0 °C	32 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
23 Aug after	36.8 °C	27 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
24 Aug after	36.7 °C	30 %	43 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 11 Jul 2016

After · 21 Aug 2016

Before After

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 · 767Every 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

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Pium fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 July 2016 and 14 August 2016: 28 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 14,790 hectares (147.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Pium (14,883 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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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.

Where it burned