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Tocantínia fire, August 2019 Tocantínia, Pedro Afonso

Out · last detection 23 Aug 2019, 16:12 UTC

The fire started on 18 August 2019 in Tocantínia, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,117 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 579th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 454 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.

Burnt area
5,117ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
18 Aug 2019 – 22 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
18 Aug
2019
Heat detections
152
in a single hotspot: 44 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Aug 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Aug22 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

181920212223

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
40km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 144 ha in 2016, 1,915 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Tocantínia 7,459 inhabitants where it started
    5,019 ha reached on 18 Aug
    1.9 %
  2. Pedro Afonso 14,055 inhabitants
    128 ha reached on 20 Aug
    0.1 %

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)
18 Aug 33.8 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Aug 35.8 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Aug 36.5 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Aug 36.2 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Aug 34.7 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Aug after 35.4 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Aug after 35.3 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Aug after 35.7 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Aug after 35.6 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Aug after 34.7 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Aug after 35.1 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Aug after 35.6 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Aug after 35.7 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Aug after 36.3 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Sept after 36.7 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Sept after 37.4 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Aug 2019
After · 29 Aug 2019

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 · 152Every 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 18 August 2019 and 22 August 2019: 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 5,117 hectares (51.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tocantínia (5,019 ha, 1.9 %); Pedro Afonso (128 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.