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Tocantínia fire, 30 July 2016 Tocantínia

Out · last detection 11 Aug 2016, 04:33 UTC

The fire started on 30 July 2016 in Tocantínia, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,004 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1241th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 649 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

The power measured by the satellite is low (28.5 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
3,004ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
30 Jul 2016 – 11 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
30 Jul
2016
Heat detections
96
in a single hotspot: 28 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
596MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Jul11 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

30311234567891011

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
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 46 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
    3,025 ha reached on 30 Jul
    1.2 %

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)
28 Jul 32.9 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Jul 34.0 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Jul 32.9 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
31 Jul 31.9 °C 29 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Aug 32.8 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Aug 33.0 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Aug 34.0 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Aug 34.4 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Aug 33.8 °C 22 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Aug 33.6 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Aug 34.7 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 Aug 35.5 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Aug 36.1 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Aug 36.3 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Aug 36.9 °C 20 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Aug after 36.7 °C 20 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Aug after 34.3 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Aug after 35.0 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
15 Aug after 35.6 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Aug after 35.6 °C 29 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Aug after 36.2 °C 29 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Aug after 37.2 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Aug after 36.7 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Aug after 35.6 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Aug after 36.8 °C 24 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Aug after 35.7 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Aug after 36.2 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Aug after 35.5 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
25 Aug after 34.4 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Aug after 35.2 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Jul 2016
After · 18 Aug 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 · 96Every 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 30 July 2016 and 11 August 2016: 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 3,004 hectares (30.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tocantínia (3,025 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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
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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.