Skip to content
worldfires
BR · Brazil · →

Aripuanã fire, August 2017 Aripuanã

Out · last detection 1 Sept 2017, 18:12 UTC

The fire started on 23 August 2017 in Aripuanã, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,919 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1448th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 661 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
3,919ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
23 Aug 2017 – 1 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
23 Aug
2017
Heat detections
316
in a single hotspot: 111 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Aug1 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

23242526272829311

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
52km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 10 Sept.

This area had burned before

76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,591 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,980 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Aripuanã 25,766 inhabitants where it started
    3,937 ha reached on 23 Aug
    0.2 %

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)
16 Aug 36.8 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Aug 33.4 °C 54 % 34 km/h 2.0 mm Low 11
18 Aug 34.9 °C 47 % 30 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 13
19 Aug 36.3 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Aug 37.1 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Aug 32.8 °C 41 % 52 km/h 8.4 mm Low 7
22 Aug 34.2 °C 43 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
23 Aug 35.6 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
24 Aug 34.5 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.5 mm High 23
25 Aug 36.2 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
26 Aug 36.7 °C 25 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
27 Aug 38.5 °C 22 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Aug 37.9 °C 23 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Aug 36.3 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Aug 36.3 °C 29 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Aug 37.5 °C 25 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Sept 37.1 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Sept after 36.7 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Sept after 37.1 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Sept after 38.3 °C 19 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Sept after 38.0 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Sept after 38.6 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Sept after 35.1 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Sept after 37.7 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Sept after 35.6 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Sept after 35.0 °C 39 % 28 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Aug 2017
After · 8 Sept 2017

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 · 316Every 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 Aripuanã fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 August 2017 and 1 September 2017: 10 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 3,919 hectares (39.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Aripuanã (3,937 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.