How long did the Sucupira fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 August 2017 and 5 September 2017: 13 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 3,853 hectares (38.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sucupira (2,241 ha, 2.2 %); Figueirópolis (1,636 ha, 0.8 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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.

BR · Brazil · 2017-08-24 → 2017-09-05

Sucupira fire, August 2017 Sucupira, Figueirópolis

Out · last detection 5 Sept 2017, 16:55 UTC

The fire started on 24 August 2017 in Sucupira, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,853 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 867th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 682 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Alvorada · 2026 Alvorada · 2025

Burnt area: 3,853ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 13days; 24 Aug 2017 – 5 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 24 Aug; 2017
Heat detections: 164; in a single hotspot: 55 MW
Danger at start: 52; Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power: 139MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Aug5 Sept

Play back 5 Sept 2017

How it evolved, day by day

24 Aug 26 Aug 28 Aug 30 Aug 1 Sept 3 Sept 5 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

38°high

54km/h · peak gust

12%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 2.4% of the area of London (39 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

Sucupira 1,577 inhabitants where it started

2,241 ha reached on 24 Aug

2.2 %
Figueirópolis 5,211 inhabitants

1,636 ha reached on 25 Aug

0.8 %

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	Danger (FWI)
24 Aug	34.0 °C	28 %	49 km/h	Extreme 52
25 Aug	34.4 °C	28 %	50 km/h	Extreme 52
26 Aug	35.5 °C	23 %	44 km/h	Very high 48
27 Aug	36.3 °C	21 %	41 km/h	Very high 48
28 Aug	37.1 °C	19 %	42 km/h	Very high 49
29 Aug	37.0 °C	19 %	43 km/h	Extreme 50
30 Aug	37.7 °C	15 %	42 km/h	Extreme 56
31 Aug	37.8 °C	15 %	37 km/h	Extreme 51
1 Sept	37.5 °C	12 %	50 km/h	Extreme 63
2 Sept	36.0 °C	15 %	54 km/h	Extreme 67
3 Sept	34.3 °C	27 %	52 km/h	Extreme 56
4 Sept	33.3 °C	23 %	50 km/h	Extreme 54
5 Sept	35.4 °C	22 %	46 km/h	Extreme 53
6 Sept after	36.4 °C	24 %	44 km/h	Extreme 51
7 Sept after	37.1 °C	24 %	43 km/h	Extreme 50
8 Sept after	37.1 °C	22 %	45 km/h	Extreme 52
9 Sept after	37.7 °C	17 %	52 km/h	Extreme 58
10 Sept after	37.1 °C	19 %	49 km/h	Extreme 58
11 Sept after	37.5 °C	20 %	48 km/h	Extreme 58
12 Sept after	36.9 °C	20 %	50 km/h	Extreme 59
13 Sept after	35.7 °C	15 %	53 km/h	Extreme 61
14 Sept after	36.8 °C	19 %	51 km/h	Extreme 60
15 Sept after	36.4 °C	20 %	49 km/h	Extreme 60

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 17 Aug 2017

After · 12 Sept 2017

Before After

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 · 164Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Sucupira fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 August 2017 and 5 September 2017: 13 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 3,853 hectares (38.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sucupira (2,241 ha, 2.2 %); Figueirópolis (1,636 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 164 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.

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.

Where it burned