How long did the Tuntum fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 August 2017 and 4 September 2017: 13 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 5,254 hectares (52.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Tuntum (5,290 ha, 1.6 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.

BR · Brazil · 2017-08-23 → 2017-09-04

Tuntum fire, 23 August 2017 Tuntum

Out · last detection 5 Sept 2017, 16:57 UTC

The fire started on 23 August 2017 in Tuntum, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,254 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 216th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 607 with a page). Number 442 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area: 5,254ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 13days; 23 Aug 2017 – 4 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 23 Aug; 2017
Heat detections: 222; in a single hotspot: 100 MW
Danger at start: 32; High · FWI index
Energy released: 3.0GW; sum of detected power

Play back 5 Sept 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Aug4 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

23242526272829303112345

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

38°high

52km/h · peak gust

28%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Tuntum where it started

5,290 ha reached on 18 Aug

1.6 %

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)
18 Aug	35.2 °C	36 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
19 Aug	35.7 °C	33 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
20 Aug	34.9 °C	40 %	29 km/h	0.1 mm	High 31
21 Aug	35.0 °C	40 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
22 Aug	35.5 °C	35 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
23 Aug	34.6 °C	34 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
24 Aug	34.1 °C	39 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
25 Aug	35.0 °C	37 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
26 Aug	35.7 °C	32 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
27 Aug	35.7 °C	34 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
28 Aug	36.1 °C	31 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
29 Aug	35.9 °C	32 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
30 Aug	36.9 °C	28 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
31 Aug	37.6 °C	29 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
1 Sept	36.4 °C	32 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
2 Sept	35.6 °C	34 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
3 Sept	35.1 °C	29 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
4 Sept	34.7 °C	33 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
5 Sept after	34.0 °C	37 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
6 Sept after	35.4 °C	37 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
7 Sept after	34.9 °C	40 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
8 Sept after	36.5 °C	35 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
9 Sept after	35.7 °C	31 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
10 Sept after	36.1 °C	32 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
11 Sept after	35.8 °C	35 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
12 Sept after	36.1 °C	34 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
13 Sept after	35.2 °C	37 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
14 Sept after	36.4 °C	32 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
15 Sept after	35.7 °C	31 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
16 Sept after	35.3 °C	31 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
17 Sept after	35.1 °C	34 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
18 Sept after	36.4 °C	34 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
19 Sept after	37.2 °C	30 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
20 Sept after	36.7 °C	32 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
21 Sept after	36.7 °C	31 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 16 Aug 2017

After · 11 Sept 2017

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.

Detections table · 222Every 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 Tuntum fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 August 2017 and 4 September 2017: 13 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 5,254 hectares (52.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Tuntum (5,290 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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

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