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Barra do Bugres fire, August 2020 Barra do Bugres, Reserva do Cabaçal, Araputanga

Out · last detection 19 Aug 2020, 18:04 UTC

The fire started on 18 August 2020 in Barra do Bugres, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,703 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 639th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 287 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area
7,703ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
18 Aug 2020 – 19 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
18 Aug
2020
Heat detections
251
in a single hotspot: 416 MW
Danger at start
51
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
9.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Aug 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Aug19 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1819

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
46km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.2 mm on 20 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Barra do Bugres where it started
    3,622 ha reached on 18 Aug
    0.6 %
  2. Reserva do Cabaçal 2,122 inhabitants
    3,068 ha reached on 18 Aug
    2.3 %
  3. Araputanga 14,786 inhabitants
    1,053 ha reached on 19 Aug
    0.6 %

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 35.7 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Aug 35.3 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Aug after 24.9 °C 63 % 51 km/h 3.2 mm Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Aug 2020
After · 26 Aug 2020

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 · 251Every 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 Barra do Bugres fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 August 2020 and 19 August 2020: 2 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 7,703 hectares (77.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Barra do Bugres (3,622 ha, 0.6 %); Reserva do Cabaçal (3,068 ha, 2.3 %); Araputanga (1,053 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.