Wildfire near Santa Cruz do Arari, Brazil (2026)

Wildfire near Santa Cruz do Arari — Sentinel-2 true color

Wildfire near Santa Cruz do Arari — Sentinel-2 SWIR (fuego)

True view Fire view

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True view (left): as the eye sees it.
Fire view (right): infrared (SWIR), sees through smoke and brings out the heat.

🟢 green = vegetation
🟤 brown = already burned
🟠 orange = fire right now

Drag to compare: normal photo on the left, heat brought out on the right.

Green: vegetationBrown: already burnedOrange: fire right nowSentinel-2 · Copernicus

The story so far

About 15 km north of Santa Cruz do Arari.

Summary written on Sep 27, while the fire was still active. It has since ended — the figures above are current.

An active wildfire is currently burning near Santa Cruz do Arari, Brazil, having scorched 430 hectares, or 1,063 acres, since it started on September 26, 2026. Orbiting equipment detects a moderate heat signature from the active front, while 21 separate satellite heat detections recorded over the past 48 hours map the close-range spread of the fire across the region.

This incident unfolds during the typical regional fire season, which runs from August to October. At the national level, a total of 7,479,031 hectares have burned across the country so far in 2026, marking a figure that sits 76% below the typical two-decade average for the same period.

In context

This wildfire burned in Brazil for 2 days. In total it burned about 430 ha (1,063 acres) — around 4.3 km². That size is an estimate from satellite hotspots, not a measured area.

Close to the tropics, fires tend to follow the dry season and are often linked to land-clearing rather than a single summer peak.