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Rio Maria fire, August 2017 Rio Maria, Floresta do Araguaia

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2017, 16:38 UTC

The fire started on 24 August 2017 in Rio Maria, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,784 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 264th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 1098 with a page). Number 214 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Rio Maria · 2020Rio Maria · 2024Santa Fé do Araguaia · 2024Xinguara · 2017

Burnt area
8,784ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
30days
24 Aug 2017 – 22 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
24 Aug
2017
Heat detections
461
in a single hotspot: 486 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
249MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Aug22 Sept
22 Sept 2017

How it evolved, day by day

24 Aug 2017 · 1 MW · 1 25 Aug 2017 · 54 MW · 11 26 Aug 2017 · 134 MW · 16 27 Aug 2017 · 65 MW · 10 28 Aug 2017 · 7 MW · 2 29 Aug 2017 · 14 MW · 4 30 Aug 2017 · 25 MW · 10 31 Aug 2017 · 100 MW · 18 1 Sept 2017 · 9 MW · 1 3 Sept 2017 · 560 MW · 9 4 Sept 2017 · 588 MW · 24 5 Sept 2017 · 123 MW · 25 6 Sept 2017 · 215 MW · 21 7 Sept 2017 · 57 MW · 8 8 Sept 2017 · 75 MW · 7 9 Sept 2017 · 196 MW · 21 10 Sept 2017 · 2,734 MW · 83 11 Sept 2017 · 151 MW · 34 12 Sept 2017 · 289 MW · 34 13 Sept 2017 · 389 MW · 31 14 Sept 2017 · 105 MW · 26 15 Sept 2017 · 356 MW · 40 16 Sept 2017 · 43 MW · 5 19 Sept 2017 · 30 MW · 2 20 Sept 2017 · 41 MW · 7 22 Sept 2017 · 104 MW · 11
24 Aug 28 Aug 1 Sept 6 Sept 10 Sept 14 Sept 20 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
43km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

21% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,831 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 5.5% of the area of London (88 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. Rio Maria where it started
    8,367 ha reached on 24 Aug
    2.0 %
  2. Floresta do Araguaia 17,898 inhabitants
    470 ha reached on 13 Sept
    0.1 %

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 2015
Built-up area1.7 ha
Residents≈ 40

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.7 hectares of built-up land and about 40 residents (GHSL 2015, 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)
24 Aug 36.1 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Aug 36.4 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Aug 36.0 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Aug 35.8 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Aug 36.7 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Aug 35.3 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Aug 36.5 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
31 Aug 37.2 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Sept 34.7 °C 42 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Sept 34.5 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Sept 35.9 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Sept 35.8 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Sept 35.9 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Sept 37.3 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Sept 36.6 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Sept 36.9 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Sept 36.7 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Sept 37.7 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Sept 37.4 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Sept 37.4 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Sept 36.8 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Sept 37.2 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Sept 37.8 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Sept 36.7 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Sept 36.9 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Sept 37.6 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Sept 38.2 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Sept 37.3 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Sept 36.2 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 Sept 36.7 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Sept after 36.7 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Sept after 36.3 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Sept after 34.5 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Sept after 36.6 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Sept after 36.9 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Sept after 36.5 °C 39 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Sept after 36.6 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Sept after 33.7 °C 51 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
1 Oct after 34.9 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
2 Oct after 35.2 °C 43 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Aug 2017
After · 29 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 · 461Every 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 Rio Maria fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 24 August 2017 to 22 September 2017 (30 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 August 2017 to 16 September 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,784 hectares (87.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rio Maria (8,367 ha, 2.0 %); Floresta do Araguaia (470 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 43 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

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 24 August 2017 to 16 September 2017. 461 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 2015, 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.