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Sambaíba fire, 6 September 2016 Sambaíba, Loreto

Out · last detection 16 Sept 2016, 15:54 UTC

The fire started on 6 September 2016 in Sambaíba, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,499 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 281th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 607 with a page). Number 339 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

Burnt area
4,499ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
6 Sept 2016 – 15 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
6 Sept
2016
Heat detections
109
in a single hotspot: 35 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
948MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Sept15 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

679101113141516

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
44km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 23 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. Sambaíba 5,568 inhabitants where it started
    3,920 ha reached on 6 Sept
    1.6 %
  2. Loreto 11,597 inhabitants
    611 ha reached on 13 Sept
    0.2 %

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)
6 Sept 37.4 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Sept 37.3 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Sept 37.1 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Sept 37.1 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Sept 37.5 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Sept 36.9 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
12 Sept 37.2 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Sept 38.4 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Sept 38.4 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Sept 38.3 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Sept after 37.5 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Sept after 37.0 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Sept after 37.2 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Sept after 38.1 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Sept after 37.1 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Sept after 37.4 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Sept after 36.6 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.9 mm High 31
23 Sept after 33.3 °C 45 % 42 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Aug 2016
After · 22 Sept 2016

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 · 109Every 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 Sambaíba fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 September 2016 and 15 September 2016: 10 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 4,499 hectares (45.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sambaíba (3,920 ha, 1.6 %); Loreto (611 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.4 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class 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
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.