Silvanópolis fire, September 2020 Silvanópolis, Monte do Carmo
The fire started on 29 September 2020 in Silvanópolis, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,574 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 396th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 362 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.
- Burnt area
- 6,574ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 29 Sept 2020 – 7 Oct 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 29 Sept
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 286
- in a single hotspot: 38 MW
- Danger at start
- 54
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.2GW
- 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 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.8 mm on 10 Oct.
This area had burned before
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,993 ha in 2016, 1,721 ha in 2017, 3,792 ha in 2018, 4,644 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,022 ha that had burned before.
- 2,703 ha Silvanópolis fire, August 2018 5,007 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,721 ha Silvanópolis fire, September 2017 3,197 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,293 ha Silvanópolis fire, August 2019 4,682 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 56 ha Monte do Carmo fire, September 2016 7,739 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Silvanópolis where it started5,652 ha reached on 29 Sept4.5 %
-
Monte do Carmo 5,694 inhabitants964 ha reached on 30 Sept0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Sept | 38.0 °C | 19 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 30 Sept | 37.9 °C | 19 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 1 Oct | 38.1 °C | 14 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 2 Oct | 38.6 °C | 14 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 3 Oct | 39.2 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 4 Oct | 39.8 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 5 Oct | 38.8 °C | 17 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 6 Oct | 39.2 °C | 12 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 7 Oct | 40.0 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 8 Oct after | 39.8 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 9 Oct after | 38.3 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 10 Oct after | 32.8 °C | 40 % | 34 km/h | 3.8 mm | Low 10 |
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.
Detections table · 286Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Silvanópolis fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 September 2020 and 7 October 2020: 9 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 6,574 hectares (65.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Silvanópolis (5,652 ha, 4.5 %); Monte do Carmo (964 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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
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.