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Alta Floresta D'Oeste fire, September 2016 Alta Floresta D'Oeste, São Francisco do Guaporé

Out · last detection 18 Sept 2016, 18:36 UTC

The fire started on 7 September 2016 in Alta Floresta D'Oeste, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,137 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 19th largest in Rondônia since 2016 (of 288 with a page). Number 34 in Brazil in 2016, of 648.

Burnt area
16,137ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
7 Sept 2016 – 18 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
7 Sept
2016
Heat detections
493
in a single hotspot: 180 MW
Danger at start
9
Low · FWI index
Average daily power
485MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Sept18 Sept
18 Sept 2016

How it evolved, day by day

7 Sept 2016 · 122 MW · 10 8 Sept 2016 · 217 MW · 23 9 Sept 2016 · 322 MW · 29 10 Sept 2016 · 121 MW · 12 11 Sept 2016 · 961 MW · 67 12 Sept 2016 · 2,630 MW · 204 13 Sept 2016 · 1,131 MW · 100 14 Sept 2016 · 44 MW · 17 15 Sept 2016 · 39 MW · 13 16 Sept 2016 · 4 MW · 2 17 Sept 2016 · 147 MW · 7 18 Sept 2016 · 84 MW · 9
7 Sept 12 Sept 16 Sept

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
41km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 19.3 mm on 19 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 10% of the area of London (161 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Alta Floresta D'Oeste where it started
    12,503 ha reached on 7 Sept
    1.8 %
  2. São Francisco do Guaporé 16,286 inhabitants
    3,792 ha reached on 9 Sept
    0.3 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
7 Sept 29.8 °C 44 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
8 Sept 32.9 °C 41 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
9 Sept 35.3 °C 39 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
10 Sept 36.8 °C 36 % 22 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 14
11 Sept 37.6 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
12 Sept 36.3 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
13 Sept 35.1 °C 46 % 41 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 18
14 Sept 35.4 °C 47 % 22 km/h 1.6 mm Low 9
15 Sept 35.6 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 17
16 Sept 33.8 °C 43 % 24 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 15
17 Sept 35.9 °C 43 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
18 Sept 37.1 °C 37 % 30 km/h 2.8 mm Moderate 12
19 Sept after 32.4 °C 53 % 37 km/h 19.3 mm Very low 2

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 8.9, a minimum humidity of 44% and 3 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 20.

FWI at the start 8.9
Minimum humidity 44 %
Days without rain 3
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

São Francisco do Guaporé fire, October 2024
3,182 ha 13 days FWI 9.8 Min. humidity 44 % 39 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.0 mm on 16 Oct.

What happened to them

9 days
median duration
5,141 ha
median area
20 %
went past 10,000 ha
8.8 mm
rain at the end (median; 19 of 20 had it)

It was 3.1 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 12 days, against 9 days.

Only 1 of its 20 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 1 of 20, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 8.8 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

19.3 mmfirst rain
19 Septthe day after it ended
41km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 18 Sept, and on 19 Sept 19.3 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 19 of 20, with a median of 8.8 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Aug 2016
After · 25 Sept 2016

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 · 493Every 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 Alta Floresta D'Oeste fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 September 2016 and 18 September 2016: 12 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 16,137 hectares (161.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Alta Floresta D'Oeste (12,503 ha, 1.8 %); São Francisco do Guaporé (3,792 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class Moderate.
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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 20. Their median duration was 9 days and their median area 5,141 ha; 20 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 1 of its 20 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 1 of 20, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 8.8 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 493 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.