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Taguatinga fire, October 2017 Taguatinga, Luís Eduardo Magalhães

Out · last detection 12 Oct 2017, 04:28 UTC

The fire started on 8 October 2017 in Taguatinga, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,370 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 733th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 571 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

The power measured by the satellite is low (26.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
4,370ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
8 Oct 2017 – 12 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
8 Oct
2017
Heat detections
141
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
984MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Oct12 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

89101112

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
56km/h · peak gust
17%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.

What happened to each town

  1. Taguatinga 14,011 inhabitants where it started
    3,422 ha reached on 8 Oct
    1.4 %
  2. Luís Eduardo Magalhães 107,909 inhabitants
    976 ha reached on 8 Oct
    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)
2 Oct 36.2 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Oct 33.0 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
4 Oct 36.7 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Oct 35.7 °C 22 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
6 Oct 34.7 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
7 Oct 35.5 °C 20 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Oct 34.9 °C 22 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Oct 35.4 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Oct 36.1 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
11 Oct 36.1 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Oct 36.7 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Oct after 36.5 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Oct after 37.4 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Oct after 38.0 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Oct after 36.2 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Oct after 34.9 °C 19 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
18 Oct after 33.4 °C 24 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
19 Oct after 34.3 °C 28 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Oct after 35.3 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Oct after 38.0 °C 18 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
22 Oct after 38.2 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Oct 2017
After · 19 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 · 141Every 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 Taguatinga fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 October 2017 and 12 October 2017: 5 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 4,370 hectares (43.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Taguatinga (3,422 ha, 1.4 %); Luís Eduardo Magalhães (976 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.

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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.