Skip to content
worldfires
BR · Brazil · →

Tocantinópolis fire, August 2026 Luzinópolis, Tocantinópolis, Nazaré

Out · last detection 18 Aug 2026, 17:15 UTC

The fire started on 13 August 2026 in Tocantinópolis, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,989 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 365th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 214 in Brazil in 2026, of 749.

Burnt area
6,989ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
13 Aug 2026 – 18 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
13 Aug
2026
Heat detections
132
in a single hotspot: 71 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Aug 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Aug18 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

131415161718

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
24%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,338 ha in 2017, 1,082 ha in 2018, 1,545 ha in 2019, 547 ha in 2020, 4,150 ha in 2022, 71 ha in 2023, 2,420 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,722 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Luzinópolis 2,717 inhabitants
    4,101 ha reached on 15 Aug
    15 %
  2. Tocantinópolis 22,615 inhabitants where it started
    2,392 ha reached on 13 Aug
    2.2 %
  3. Nazaré 4,521 inhabitants
    542 ha reached on 16 Aug
    1.4 %

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)
13 Aug 34.8 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Aug 35.9 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Aug 34.7 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Aug 34.8 °C 30 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Aug 34.2 °C 28 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Aug 34.8 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Aug after 36.2 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Aug after 36.3 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Aug after 35.3 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Aug after 34.7 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Aug after 36.1 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Aug after 35.9 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Aug after 35.4 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Aug after 34.9 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Aug after 33.7 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Aug after 34.9 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Aug 2026
After · 25 Aug 2026

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 16 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 20 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak20 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1021 µg/m³
Optical depth0.25
1112131415161718192021
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 · 132Every 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 Tocantinópolis fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 August 2026 and 18 August 2026: 6 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 6,989 hectares (69.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Luzinópolis (4,101 ha, 15 %); Tocantinópolis (2,392 ha, 2.2 %); Nazaré (542 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.