Skip to content
worldfires
BR · Brazil · →

Tocantínia fire, 2 September 2019 Tocantínia

Out · last detection 10 Sept 2019, 17:15 UTC

The fire started on 2 September 2019 in Tocantínia, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,285 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 747th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 579 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.

Burnt area
4,285ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
2 Sept 2019 – 10 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
2 Sept
2019
Heat detections
129
in a single hotspot: 43 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
803MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Sept10 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

234567810

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
51km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 55 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

6% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 269 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Tocantínia 7,459 inhabitants where it started
    4,313 ha reached on 2 Sept
    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)
2 Sept 36.9 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Sept 36.8 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Sept 36.7 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Sept 35.9 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Sept 35.4 °C 24 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Sept 34.9 °C 21 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Sept 35.5 °C 22 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Sept 35.3 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Sept 36.6 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Sept after 36.6 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Sept after 37.5 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Sept after 37.8 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Sept after 36.0 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Sept after 36.4 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Sept after 36.7 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Sept after 36.8 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Sept after 37.1 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Sept after 37.5 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Sept after 37.6 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Aug 2019
After · 17 Sept 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 · 129Every 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 2 September 2019 and 10 September 2019: 9 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 4,285 hectares (42.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tocantínia (4,313 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.

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.