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Portel fire, 20 September 2022 Portel

Out · last detection 24 Oct 2022, 17:43 UTC

The fire started on 20 September 2022 in Portel, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 35 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,957 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 350th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 1110 with a page). Number 198 in Brazil in 2022, of 687.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Portel · 2026Portel · 2026Portel · 2022Portel · 2026

Burnt area
6,957ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
35days
20 Sept 2022 – 24 Oct 2022
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
20 Sept
2022
Heat detections
760
in a single hotspot: 478 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Average daily power
280MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Sept24 Oct
24 Oct 2022

How it evolved, day by day

20 Sept 2022 · 133 MW · 16 22 Sept 2022 · 160 MW · 9 23 Sept 2022 · 96 MW · 32 24 Sept 2022 · 29 MW · 2 25 Sept 2022 · 413 MW · 14 27 Sept 2022 · 14 MW · 3 28 Sept 2022 · 81 MW · 9 29 Sept 2022 · 39 MW · 5 30 Sept 2022 · 885 MW · 39 1 Oct 2022 · 657 MW · 16 2 Oct 2022 · 55 MW · 14 3 Oct 2022 · 21 MW · 16 4 Oct 2022 · 139 MW · 43 5 Oct 2022 · 75 MW · 10 6 Oct 2022 · 70 MW · 10 7 Oct 2022 · 16 MW · 3 8 Oct 2022 · 3,298 MW · 87 9 Oct 2022 · 438 MW · 64 10 Oct 2022 · 77 MW · 32 11 Oct 2022 · 450 MW · 48 12 Oct 2022 · 465 MW · 102 13 Oct 2022 · 973 MW · 47 14 Oct 2022 · 3 MW · 2 15 Oct 2022 · 19 MW · 4 16 Oct 2022 · 29 MW · 11 17 Oct 2022 · 8 MW · 1 18 Oct 2022 · 25 MW · 8 19 Oct 2022 · 13 MW · 10 20 Oct 2022 · 145 MW · 29 21 Oct 2022 · 81 MW · 27 22 Oct 2022 · 15 MW · 6 23 Oct 2022 · 8 MW · 1 24 Oct 2022 · 324 MW · 40
20 Sept 27 Sept 2 Oct 7 Oct 8 Oct 12 Oct 17 Oct 22 Oct

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
40km/h · peak gust
38%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.9 mm on 25 Oct.

This area had burned before

72% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,344 ha in 2016, 3,202 ha in 2018, 1,069 ha in 2019, 2,318 ha in 2020, 1,214 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,009 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 4.4% of the area of London (70 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Portel 62,503 inhabitants where it started
    7,006 ha reached on 20 Sept
    0.3 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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 Sept 35.8 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
21 Sept 35.3 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
22 Sept 35.4 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Sept 35.4 °C 44 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
24 Sept 35.4 °C 42 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 25
25 Sept 34.9 °C 44 % 29 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
26 Sept 33.5 °C 47 % 38 km/h 3.5 mm Low 7
27 Sept 35.0 °C 41 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 19
28 Sept 35.7 °C 42 % 37 km/h 1.8 mm Moderate 16
29 Sept 35.2 °C 47 % 36 km/h 6.7 mm Low 5
30 Sept 34.2 °C 52 % 33 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 12
1 Oct 33.6 °C 53 % 39 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 14
2 Oct 33.4 °C 52 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 16
3 Oct 33.9 °C 50 % 26 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 17
4 Oct 33.4 °C 51 % 27 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 16
5 Oct 34.8 °C 44 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
6 Oct 32.6 °C 53 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 21
7 Oct 33.2 °C 51 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
8 Oct 35.2 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
9 Oct 33.8 °C 53 % 32 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 18
10 Oct 32.9 °C 56 % 40 km/h 6.1 mm Very low 4
11 Oct 34.6 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 13
12 Oct 34.5 °C 49 % 26 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 16
13 Oct 33.5 °C 54 % 32 km/h 4.1 mm Very low 4
14 Oct 33.6 °C 53 % 38 km/h 4.2 mm Very low 3
15 Oct 32.6 °C 55 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
16 Oct 32.7 °C 54 % 27 km/h 0.3 mm Low 10
17 Oct 33.1 °C 52 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 12
18 Oct 33.2 °C 54 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 13
19 Oct 34.3 °C 47 % 38 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 16
20 Oct 34.9 °C 46 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 16
21 Oct 34.8 °C 49 % 23 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 16
22 Oct 33.6 °C 53 % 26 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 17
23 Oct 34.7 °C 47 % 32 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 18
24 Oct 34.4 °C 48 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 17
25 Oct after 33.7 °C 51 % 29 km/h 6.9 mm Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Sept 2022
After · 31 Oct 2022

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 12 October 2022 the air beside the fire reached 418 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 163: 11 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak418 µg/m³
Days over the guideline26 days
PM10598 µg/m³
Optical depth1.85
2526272829301234567891011121314151617181920
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 760Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 September 2022 to 24 October 2022 (35 days). The perimeter dates it from 27 September 2022 to 17 October 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,957 hectares (69.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Portel (7,006 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 17 October 2022 → 24 October 2022.
  2. Start date: 27 September 2022 → 20 September 2022.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 27 September 2022 to 17 October 2022. 760 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.