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Tocantínia fire, 5 July 2016 Tocantínia, Pedro Afonso

Out · last detection 13 Jul 2016, 16:13 UTC

The fire started on 5 July 2016 in Tocantínia, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,045 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 249th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 112 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

Burnt area
9,045ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
5 Jul 2016 – 12 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
5 Jul
2016
Heat detections
254
in a single hotspot: 83 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Jul12 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

5678910111213

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
46km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 26 days 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. Tocantínia 7,459 inhabitants where it started
    8,743 ha reached on 5 Jul
    3.3 %
  2. Pedro Afonso 14,055 inhabitants
    355 ha reached on 8 Jul
    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)
5 Jul 33.8 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Jul 34.2 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Jul 34.8 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Jul 36.2 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Jul 35.1 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Jul 34.0 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Jul 35.6 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
12 Jul 35.4 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Jul after 35.3 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Jul after 36.3 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Jul after 34.8 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Jul after 35.7 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Jul after 35.0 °C 24 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Jul after 35.9 °C 27 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Jul after 36.6 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Jul after 35.9 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Jul after 35.7 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Jul after 35.5 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Jun 2016
After · 19 Jul 2016

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 · 254Every 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 Tocantínia fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 July 2016 and 12 July 2016: 8 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 9,045 hectares (90.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tocantínia (8,743 ha, 3.3 %); Pedro Afonso (355 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very high.
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
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.

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.