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Tocantínia fire, August 2018 Tocantínia

Out · last detection 4 Sept 2018, 16:31 UTC

The fire started on 31 August 2018 in Tocantínia, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,112 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 788th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 155 in Brazil in 2018, of 291.

Burnt area
4,112ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
31 Aug 2018 – 5 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
31 Aug
2018
Heat detections
132
in a single hotspot: 47 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
962MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Aug5 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

311234

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
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

43% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,751 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Tocantínia 7,459 inhabitants where it started
    4,140 ha reached on 29 Aug
    1.6 %

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 Aug 34.9 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Aug 34.8 °C 24 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
31 Aug 34.6 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Sept 35.3 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Sept 36.2 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Sept 37.2 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Sept 34.8 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Sept 34.3 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Sept after 34.9 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Sept after 32.5 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
8 Sept after 35.8 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Sept after 35.2 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Sept after 35.6 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Sept after 36.7 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Sept after 35.7 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Sept after 32.0 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Sept after 35.1 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Sept after 35.4 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Aug 2018
After · 12 Sept 2018

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 · 132Every 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 31 August 2018 and 5 September 2018: 6 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 4,112 hectares (41.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tocantínia (4,140 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % 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
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.