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Bonópolis fire, August 2016 Porangatu, Bonópolis

Out · last detection 24 Aug 2016, 16:24 UTC

The fire started on 20 August 2016 in Bonópolis, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,445 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 179th largest in Goiás since 2016 (of 548 with a page). Number 193 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

Burnt area
6,445ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
20 Aug 2016 – 24 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
20 Aug
2016
Heat detections
231
in a single hotspot: 40 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Aug24 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2021222324

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
42km/h · peak gust
24%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

  1. Porangatu 44,317 inhabitants
    4,126 ha reached on 20 Aug
    0.8 %
  2. Bonópolis 3,299 inhabitants where it started
    2,364 ha reached on 20 Aug
    1.4 %

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)
20 Aug 35.9 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Aug 34.1 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Aug 31.9 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Aug 35.9 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Aug 35.6 °C 26 % 42 km/h 1.2 mm Very high 40
25 Aug after 34.5 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 42
26 Aug after 34.7 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Aug after 35.2 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Aug after 35.1 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Aug after 34.4 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Aug after 36.5 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
31 Aug after 36.3 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Sept after 36.6 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Sept after 36.4 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
3 Sept after 34.8 °C 24 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Aug 2016
After · 31 Aug 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 · 231Every 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 Bonópolis fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 August 2016 and 24 August 2016: 5 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 6,445 hectares (64.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Porangatu (4,126 ha, 0.8 %); Bonópolis (2,364 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 42 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

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.