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BR · Brazil · –

Sebastião Leal fire, 2 August 2018 Sebastião Leal, Bertolínia, Manoel Emídio

Out · last detection 2 Sept 2018, 17:09 UTC

The fire started on 2 August 2018 in Sebastião Leal, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 32 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,152 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 273th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 665 with a page). Number 90 in Brazil in 2018, of 291.

Burnt area
5,152ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
32days
2 Aug 2018 – 2 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
2 Aug
2018
Heat detections
268
in a single hotspot: 58 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
58MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Aug2 Sept
2 Sept 2018

How it evolved, day by day

2 Aug 2018 · 16 MW · 1 3 Aug 2018 · 107 MW · 10 4 Aug 2018 · 52 MW · 10 5 Aug 2018 · 25 MW · 4 6 Aug 2018 · 11 MW · 2 7 Aug 2018 · 25 MW · 1 8 Aug 2018 · 25 MW · 6 9 Aug 2018 · 60 MW · 7 10 Aug 2018 · 70 MW · 10 11 Aug 2018 · 136 MW · 24 12 Aug 2018 · 28 MW · 17 13 Aug 2018 · 25 MW · 9 15 Aug 2018 · 36 MW · 12 16 Aug 2018 · 36 MW · 6 17 Aug 2018 · 13 MW · 5 18 Aug 2018 · 184 MW · 33 19 Aug 2018 · 123 MW · 28 20 Aug 2018 · 30 MW · 5 22 Aug 2018 · 64 MW · 14 23 Aug 2018 · 89 MW · 11 24 Aug 2018 · 46 MW · 10 25 Aug 2018 · 45 MW · 11 26 Aug 2018 · 213 MW · 12 28 Aug 2018 · 1 MW · 1 29 Aug 2018 · 125 MW · 4 30 Aug 2018 · 29 MW · 12 1 Sept 2018 · 2 MW · 1 2 Sept 2018 · 8 MW · 2
2 Aug 8 Aug 15 Aug 26 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
47km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 6 Sept.

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 374 ha in 2017.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 3.3% of the area of London (52 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. Sebastião Leal 4,446 inhabitants where it started
    2,728 ha reached on 2 Aug
    0.9 %
  2. Bertolínia 5,562 inhabitants
    2,097 ha reached on 4 Aug
    1.7 %
  3. Manoel Emídio 5,209 inhabitants
    362 ha reached on 22 Aug
    0.2 %

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 area0.30 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.30 hectares of 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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 55 % of the area in Brazil

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
2 Aug 33.5 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Aug 33.3 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Aug 34.1 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Aug 35.3 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
6 Aug 35.1 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
7 Aug 35.3 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
8 Aug 34.3 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Aug 35.1 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Aug 36.6 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Aug 36.6 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Aug 33.8 °C 38 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Aug 33.1 °C 49 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
14 Aug 32.9 °C 39 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Aug 35.0 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Aug 35.8 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Aug 34.2 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Aug 34.2 °C 29 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Aug 34.3 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
20 Aug 34.1 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
21 Aug 33.4 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
22 Aug 35.2 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
23 Aug 35.2 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
24 Aug 35.7 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
25 Aug 36.5 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Aug 36.4 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
27 Aug 34.8 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
28 Aug 34.6 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
29 Aug 34.9 °C 25 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
30 Aug 33.9 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
31 Aug 34.0 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
1 Sept 34.1 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Sept 35.7 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
3 Sept after 36.2 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Sept after 36.8 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Sept after 33.6 °C 46 % 25 km/h 0.9 mm High 25
6 Sept after 31.3 °C 39 % 42 km/h 2.0 mm Moderate 18

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 44.5, a minimum humidity of 26% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 24.

FWI at the start 44.5
Minimum humidity 26 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Loreto fire, August 2021
3,582 ha 8 days FWI 46.4 Min. humidity 26 % 137 km away, in 2021

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

13 days
median duration
4,035 ha
median area
4 %
went past 10,000 ha
3.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 8 of 24 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (5,152 ha against a median of 4,035 ha) and lasted 32 days, against 13 days.

In 16 of 24, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.0 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

2.0 mmfirst rain
6 Sept4 days after it ended
47km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 2 Sept, and on 6 Sept 2.0 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 8 of 24, with a median of 3.0 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Jul 2018
After · 9 Sept 2018

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 · 268Every 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 Sebastião Leal fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 2 August 2018 to 2 September 2018 (32 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 August 2018 to 30 August 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,152 hectares (51.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sebastião Leal (2,728 ha, 0.9 %); Bertolínia (2,097 ha, 1.7 %); Manoel Emídio (362 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 47 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 24. Their median duration was 13 days and their median area 4,035 ha; 4 % went past 10,000 ha. In 16 of 24, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.0 mm.

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. Last day with fire: 30 August 2018 → 2 September 2018.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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 2 August 2018 to 30 August 2018. 268 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.