How long did the Tocantínia fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 September 2022 and 3 October 2022: 7 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 3,150 hectares (31.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lajeado (2,114 ha, 6.5 %); Tocantínia (1,057 ha, 0.4 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class 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.

BR · Brazil · 2022-09-27 → 2022-10-03

Tocantínia fire, September 2022 Lajeado, Tocantínia

Out · last detection 3 Oct 2022, 04:59 UTC

The fire started on 27 September 2022 in Tocantínia, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,150 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 1163th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 631 in Brazil in 2022, of 687.

The power measured by the satellite is low (16.1 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area: 3,150ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 7days; 27 Sept 2022 – 3 Oct 2022
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 27 Sept; 2022
Heat detections: 99; in a single hotspot: 16 MW
Danger at start: 26; High · FWI index
Energy released: 451MW; sum of detected power

Play back 3 Oct 2022

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Sept3 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

272930123

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

37km/h · peak gust

21%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,157 ha in 2016, 992 ha in 2017, 1,376 ha in 2019, 740 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,661 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Lajeado 3,357 inhabitants

2,114 ha reached on 29 Sept

6.5 %
Tocantínia 7,459 inhabitants where it started

1,057 ha reached on 27 Sept

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)
27 Sept	35.0 °C	26 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
28 Sept	35.8 °C	24 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
29 Sept	35.8 °C	23 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
30 Sept	35.9 °C	27 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
1 Oct	36.0 °C	21 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
2 Oct	36.1 °C	23 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
3 Oct	33.6 °C	33 %	28 km/h	0.1 mm	High 30
4 Oct after	34.6 °C	36 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
5 Oct after	35.5 °C	32 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
6 Oct after	35.0 °C	32 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
7 Oct after	32.0 °C	46 %	33 km/h	0.1 mm	High 26
8 Oct after	34.9 °C	37 %	22 km/h	0.1 mm	High 23
9 Oct after	30.2 °C	53 %	31 km/h	2.6 mm	Very low 5
10 Oct after	34.2 °C	33 %	30 km/h	0.2 mm	High 22
11 Oct after	34.9 °C	30 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
12 Oct after	35.7 °C	24 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
13 Oct after	35.4 °C	26 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
14 Oct after	35.4 °C	28 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
15 Oct after	33.3 °C	35 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
16 Oct after	35.5 °C	27 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
17 Oct after	34.0 °C	35 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
18 Oct after	35.5 °C	27 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
19 Oct after	34.8 °C	30 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 20 Sept 2022

After · 10 Oct 2022

Before After

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 2 October 2022 the air beside the fire reached 53 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 34: 2.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak53 µg/m³

Days over the guideline9 days

PM1077 µg/m³

Optical depth0.81

WHO 15

252627282930123456

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 99Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Tocantínia fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 September 2022 and 3 October 2022: 7 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 3,150 hectares (31.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lajeado (2,114 ha, 6.5 %); Tocantínia (1,057 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class 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

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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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.

Where it burned