Skip to content
worldfires
BR · Brazil · →

Trombas fire, September 2021 Trombas, Minaçu

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2021, 16:43 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2021 in Trombas, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,951 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 200th largest in Goiás since 2016 (of 548 with a page). Number 315 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Burnt area
5,951ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
12 Sept 2021 – 22 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
12 Sept
2021
Heat detections
226
in a single hotspot: 90 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept22 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1213141516171819202122

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
45km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 29 Sept.

This area had burned before

50% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,961 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Trombas 3,120 inhabitants where it started
    3,653 ha reached on 12 Sept
    4.5 %
  2. Minaçu 27,075 inhabitants
    2,336 ha reached on 14 Sept
    0.8 %

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)
12 Sept 33.9 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Sept 32.9 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Sept 33.6 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Sept 34.6 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
16 Sept 34.6 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Sept 33.3 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Sept 33.5 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
19 Sept 35.5 °C 8 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Sept 35.4 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Sept 35.7 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Sept 35.2 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Sept after 32.8 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Sept after 31.1 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
25 Sept after 29.6 °C 43 % 21 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 15
26 Sept after 26.1 °C 49 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 20
27 Sept after 31.5 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
28 Sept after 32.8 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Sept after 32.9 °C 31 % 32 km/h 1.6 mm High 21

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Sept 2021
After · 29 Sept 2021

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 · 226Every 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 Trombas fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 September 2021 and 22 September 2021: 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 5,951 hectares (59.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Trombas (3,653 ha, 4.5 %); Minaçu (2,336 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.