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Tocantínia fire, September 2020 Tocantínia

Out · last detection 16 Sept 2020, 15:59 UTC

The fire started on 5 September 2020 in Tocantínia, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,644 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 506th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 440 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area
5,644ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
5 Sept 2020 – 15 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
5 Sept
2020
Heat detections
167
in a single hotspot: 91 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Sept15 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

56789101112131416

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
13%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

56% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 966 ha in 2016, 2,632 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,179 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Tocantínia 7,459 inhabitants where it started
    5,681 ha reached on 5 Sept
    2.2 %

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)
5 Sept 36.3 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Sept 35.4 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 Sept 35.8 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Sept 36.7 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
9 Sept 36.5 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Sept 36.7 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Sept 36.8 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
12 Sept 37.0 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Sept 35.6 °C 17 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
14 Sept 35.9 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Sept 35.3 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 Sept after 36.3 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Sept after 37.4 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Sept after 37.9 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Sept after 36.8 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Sept after 37.0 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Sept after 34.5 °C 40 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Sept after 32.5 °C 46 % 22 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
23 Sept after 35.3 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Sept after 37.5 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Sept after 33.8 °C 32 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Sept after 33.7 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Aug 2020
After · 22 Sept 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 · 167Every 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 5 September 2020 and 15 September 2020: 11 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 5,644 hectares (56.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tocantínia (5,681 ha, 2.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.