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Pium fire, 13 September 2020 Pium, Lagoa da Confusão

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2020, 16:37 UTC

The fire started on 13 September 2020 in Pium, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,649 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 321th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 289 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area
7,649ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
13 Sept 2020 – 14 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
13 Sept
2020
Heat detections
186
in a single hotspot: 160 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Sept14 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1314

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
45km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,981 ha in 2016, 4,747 ha in 2017, 3,657 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,566 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Pium 7,128 inhabitants where it started
    7,707 ha reached on 11 Sept
    0.8 %
  2. Lagoa da Confusão 15,288 inhabitants
    4 ha reached on 12 Sept
    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 Sept 38.6 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Sept 38.7 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Sept 37.1 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Sept 37.4 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Sept after 35.5 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Sept after 38.0 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Sept after 38.3 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Sept after 38.7 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Sept after 38.9 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Sept after 37.5 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Sept after 35.0 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.5 mm High 32
22 Sept after 31.1 °C 56 % 23 km/h 0.4 mm High 22
23 Sept after 35.9 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Sept after 37.9 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Sept after 35.0 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Sept after 34.0 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Sept after 37.3 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Sept 2020
After · 21 Sept 2020

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 · 186Every 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 Pium fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 September 2020 and 14 September 2020: 2 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 7,649 hectares (76.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pium (7,707 ha, 0.8 %); Lagoa da Confusão (4 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.