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Tocantínia fire, August 2020 Tocantínia, Pedro Afonso

Out · last detection 15 Aug 2020, 15:59 UTC

The fire started on 6 August 2020 in Tocantínia, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,648 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 505th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 439 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area
5,648ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
6 Aug 2020 – 14 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
6 Aug
2020
Heat detections
158
in a single hotspot: 57 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Aug 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Aug14 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

6789101112131415

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
49km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,805 ha in 2016, 944 ha in 2017, 1,771 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,432 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Tocantínia 7,459 inhabitants where it started
    4,884 ha reached on 6 Aug
    1.9 %
  2. Pedro Afonso 14,055 inhabitants
    798 ha reached on 8 Aug
    0.4 %

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)
6 Aug 31.7 °C 33 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Aug 32.3 °C 28 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Aug 32.5 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Aug 33.1 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Aug 33.8 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Aug 34.6 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Aug 34.8 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Aug 35.3 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Aug 35.0 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Aug after 35.9 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Aug after 36.7 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Aug after 36.6 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Aug after 36.4 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Aug after 36.6 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Aug after 36.8 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Aug after 37.4 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Aug after 37.4 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Aug after 34.4 °C 38 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Aug after 34.9 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Aug after 36.2 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Jul 2020
After · 21 Aug 2020

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 · 158Every 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 6 August 2020 and 14 August 2020: 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 5,648 hectares (56.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tocantínia (4,884 ha, 1.9 %); Pedro Afonso (798 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.