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Portel fire, August 2017 Portel

Out · last detection 9 Sept 2017, 04:44 UTC

The fire started on 20 August 2017 in Portel, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,041 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1077th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 1095 with a page). Number 975 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
3,041ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
20 Aug 2017 – 9 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
20 Aug
2017
Heat detections
572
in a single hotspot: 238 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
5.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Aug9 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2021222324252627283031123456789

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
46km/h · peak gust
38%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 21 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Portel 62,503 inhabitants where it started
    3,062 ha reached on 20 Aug
    0.1 %

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)
20 Aug 35.0 °C 43 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Aug 35.9 °C 42 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm High 27
22 Aug 36.2 °C 43 % 31 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 21
23 Aug 31.9 °C 64 % 30 km/h 4.4 mm Very low 4
24 Aug 33.9 °C 47 % 45 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 14
25 Aug 35.0 °C 45 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
26 Aug 35.3 °C 43 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
27 Aug 35.9 °C 41 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Aug 34.2 °C 53 % 44 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 21
29 Aug 35.0 °C 45 % 37 km/h 0.5 mm High 23
30 Aug 35.4 °C 49 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
31 Aug 35.2 °C 42 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
1 Sept 35.2 °C 46 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
2 Sept 35.7 °C 46 % 34 km/h 1.1 mm High 21
3 Sept 35.1 °C 48 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 21
4 Sept 34.3 °C 42 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
5 Sept 35.6 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
6 Sept 36.0 °C 40 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Sept 35.2 °C 46 % 39 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
8 Sept 34.8 °C 49 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
9 Sept 34.3 °C 49 % 40 km/h 0.5 mm High 29
10 Sept after 35.4 °C 47 % 46 km/h 0.3 mm High 29
11 Sept after 35.2 °C 44 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm High 28
12 Sept after 34.3 °C 45 % 45 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 21
13 Sept after 35.1 °C 43 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
14 Sept after 36.5 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Sept after 35.3 °C 50 % 32 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 20
16 Sept after 34.7 °C 48 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
17 Sept after 34.6 °C 46 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
18 Sept after 36.3 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Sept after 36.3 °C 45 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
20 Sept after 34.0 °C 54 % 33 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
21 Sept after 33.8 °C 54 % 42 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Aug 2017
After · 16 Sept 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 · 572Every 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 Portel fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 August 2017 and 9 September 2017: 21 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 3,041 hectares (30.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Portel (3,062 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, class 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.