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Planaltina fire, 14 October 2019 Planaltina, Padre Bernardo, Brasília

Out · last detection 18 Oct 2019, 17:01 UTC

The fire started on 14 October 2019 in Planaltina, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,700 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 138th largest in Goiás since 2016 (of 548 with a page). Number 252 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.

Burnt area
7,700ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
14 Oct 2019 – 18 Oct 2019
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
14 Oct
2019
Heat detections
222
in a single hotspot: 65 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Oct 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Oct18 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1415161718

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
38km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.7 mm on 21 Oct.

This area had burned before

51% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,353 ha in 2016, 860 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,919 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Planaltina 105,031 inhabitants where it started
    6,363 ha reached on 13 Oct
    2.5 %
  2. Padre Bernardo 34,967 inhabitants
    1,360 ha reached on 15 Oct
    0.4 %
  3. Brasília 47,045 inhabitants
    27 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)
13 Oct 34.7 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Oct 34.7 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Oct 35.6 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Oct 35.5 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Oct 33.1 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 Oct 35.1 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Oct after 35.9 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Oct after 34.7 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Oct after 30.2 °C 49 % 30 km/h 4.7 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Oct 2019
After · 25 Oct 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 · 222Every 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 Planaltina fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 October 2019 and 18 October 2019: 5 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 7,700 hectares (77.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Planaltina (6,363 ha, 2.5 %); Padre Bernardo (1,360 ha, 0.4 %); Brasília (27 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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

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.