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Santa Rita do Tocantins fire, August 2017 Dueré, Santa Rita do Tocantins, Lagoa da Confusão

Out · last detection 30 Sept 2017, 04:53 UTC

The fire started on 23 August 2017 in Santa Rita do Tocantins, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 39 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 28,578 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 35th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1243 with a page). Number 41 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Lagoa da Confusão · 2016Santa Rita do Tocantins · 2019Dueré · 2016Lagoa da Confusão · 2021

Burnt area
28,578ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
39days
23 Aug 2017 – 30 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
23 Aug
2017
Heat detections
1,615
in a single hotspot: 463 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
721MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Aug30 Sept
30 Sept 2017

How it evolved, day by day

23 Aug 2017 · 193 MW · 33 24 Aug 2017 · 27 MW · 7 25 Aug 2017 · 82 MW · 13 26 Aug 2017 · 74 MW · 5 27 Aug 2017 · 478 MW · 33 28 Aug 2017 · 43 MW · 9 29 Aug 2017 · 40 MW · 9 30 Aug 2017 · 34 MW · 7 31 Aug 2017 · 175 MW · 9 1 Sept 2017 · 817 MW · 53 2 Sept 2017 · 1,113 MW · 102 3 Sept 2017 · 1,092 MW · 61 4 Sept 2017 · 460 MW · 70 5 Sept 2017 · 2,453 MW · 88 6 Sept 2017 · 3,241 MW · 83 7 Sept 2017 · 1,127 MW · 115 8 Sept 2017 · 262 MW · 55 9 Sept 2017 · 199 MW · 11 10 Sept 2017 · 3,306 MW · 49 11 Sept 2017 · 1,343 MW · 63 12 Sept 2017 · 1,428 MW · 151 13 Sept 2017 · 2,441 MW · 188 14 Sept 2017 · 507 MW · 64 15 Sept 2017 · 125 MW · 33 16 Sept 2017 · 130 MW · 11 17 Sept 2017 · 70 MW · 9 18 Sept 2017 · 61 MW · 5 19 Sept 2017 · 12 MW · 5 20 Sept 2017 · 185 MW · 37 24 Sept 2017 · 1,130 MW · 33 25 Sept 2017 · 1,099 MW · 71 26 Sept 2017 · 1,190 MW · 51 27 Sept 2017 · 815 MW · 62 28 Sept 2017 · 146 MW · 4 29 Sept 2017 · 32 MW · 9 30 Sept 2017 · 19 MW · 7
23 Aug 29 Aug 4 Sept 10 Sept 16 Sept 25 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

41°high
50km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.7 mm on 1 Oct.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 15,859 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 13,347 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 18% of the area of London (286 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. Dueré 4,248 inhabitants
    17,825 ha reached on 24 Aug
    5.2 %
  2. Santa Rita do Tocantins 2,219 inhabitants where it started
    10,918 ha reached on 23 Aug
    3.3 %
  3. Lagoa da Confusão 15,288 inhabitants
    0 ha reached on 27 Sept
    0.0 %

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 area3.2 ha
Residents≈ 80

Inside the perimeter there were about 3.2 hectares of built-up land and about 80 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)
23 Aug 37.0 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
24 Aug 36.6 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Aug 37.0 °C 23 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
26 Aug 37.9 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Aug 38.4 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Aug 39.8 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 Aug 39.8 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Aug 39.9 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Aug 40.3 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
1 Sept 39.9 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
2 Sept 38.4 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
3 Sept 37.0 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
4 Sept 35.6 °C 19 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
5 Sept 37.6 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
6 Sept 38.6 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
7 Sept 39.0 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Sept 38.1 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
9 Sept 40.2 °C 16 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Sept 39.6 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
11 Sept 40.5 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Sept 39.2 °C 20 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
13 Sept 38.5 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
14 Sept 39.2 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
15 Sept 39.0 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
16 Sept 38.6 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
17 Sept 38.2 °C 18 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
18 Sept 39.1 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Sept 40.3 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
20 Sept 39.6 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Sept 35.2 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Sept 38.2 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Sept 39.3 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Sept 40.2 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 Sept 40.1 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Sept 39.7 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Sept 39.4 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Sept 39.5 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
29 Sept 40.8 °C 19 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
30 Sept 35.8 °C 37 % 38 km/h 1.5 mm High 25
1 Oct after 36.3 °C 36 % 30 km/h 2.7 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Aug 2017
After · 7 Oct 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 · 1,615Every 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 Santa Rita do Tocantins fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 August 2017 to 30 September 2017 (39 days). The perimeter dates it from 30 August 2017 to 30 September 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 28,578 hectares (285.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Dueré (17,825 ha, 5.2 %); Santa Rita do Tocantins (10,918 ha, 3.3 %); Lagoa da Confusão (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.8 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 30 August 2017 → 23 August 2017.

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; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 30 August 2017 to 30 September 2017. 1,615 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.