Rio Sono fire, 21 August 2024 Rio Sono, Lizarda
The fire started on 21 August 2024 in Rio Sono, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,167 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 212th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 312 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.
- Burnt area
- 10,167ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 21 Aug 2024 – 1 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 21 Aug
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 409
- in a single hotspot: 74 MW
- Danger at start
- 59
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.9GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,246 ha in 2016, 110 ha in 2017, 958 ha in 2019, 6,086 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,499 ha that had burned before.
- 4,257 ha Rio Sono fire, September 2020 6,818 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,246 ha Lizarda fire, August 2016 10,217 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,759 ha Rio Sono fire, October 2020 3,948 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 243 ha Lizarda fire, September 2019 10,355 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
9,258 ha reached on 19 Aug1.4 %
-
Lizarda 2,999 inhabitants977 ha reached on 21 Aug0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Aug | 36.2 °C | 21 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 20 Aug | 36.8 °C | 17 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 21 Aug | 37.4 °C | 17 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 22 Aug | 37.9 °C | 16 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 23 Aug | 36.6 °C | 15 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 24 Aug | 36.9 °C | 16 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 25 Aug | 37.9 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 26 Aug | 38.8 °C | 11 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 27 Aug | 38.9 °C | 13 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 28 Aug | 36.8 °C | 12 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 75 |
| 29 Aug | 35.8 °C | 20 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 30 Aug | 35.5 °C | 22 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 31 Aug | 36.1 °C | 22 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 1 Sept | 37.0 °C | 18 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 2 Sept after | 37.0 °C | 13 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 3 Sept after | 37.6 °C | 12 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 4 Sept after | 39.5 °C | 6 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 5 Sept after | 38.5 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 6 Sept after | 38.6 °C | 7 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 7 Sept after | 38.3 °C | 15 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 8 Sept after | 37.9 °C | 14 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 9 Sept after | 37.3 °C | 16 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 10 Sept after | 36.9 °C | 17 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 11 Sept after | 38.0 °C | 17 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 12 Sept after | 37.9 °C | 17 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 13 Sept after | 38.4 °C | 16 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 14 Sept after | 37.6 °C | 16 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 7 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 61 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 31: 2.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 409Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 14,213 haLizarda3 September 2020 · 16 days · 23 km away
- 27,228 haRio Sono4 September 2024 · 18 days · 27 km away
- 14,656 haLizarda23 October 2025 · 7 days · 29 km away
- 11,622 haLizarda30 August 2022 · 9 days · 29 km away
- 12,192 haLizarda8 September 2025 · 8 days · 32 km away
- 18,221 haLizarda23 October 2025 · 8 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Rio Sono fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 August 2024 and 1 September 2024: 12 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 10,167 hectares (101.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rio Sono (9,258 ha, 1.4 %); Lizarda (977 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 75, class Very 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
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.