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Cáceres fire, 31 August 2021 Cáceres

Out · last detection 15 Oct 2021, 17:52 UTC

The fire started on 31 August 2021 in Cáceres, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 46 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 117,348 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 14th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 5 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Cáceres · 2020Cáceres · 2019Cáceres · 2019Cáceres · 2020

Burnt area
117,348ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
46days
31 Aug 2021 – 15 Oct 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
31 Aug
2021
Heat detections
4,065
in a single hotspot: 301 MW
Danger at start
38
High · FWI index
Average daily power
1.4GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Aug15 Oct
15 Oct 2021

How it evolved, day by day

31 Aug 2021 · 236 MW · 14 1 Sept 2021 · 81 MW · 11 2 Sept 2021 · 80 MW · 4 3 Sept 2021 · 174 MW · 8 4 Sept 2021 · 44 MW · 3 7 Sept 2021 · 2,767 MW · 61 8 Sept 2021 · 488 MW · 53 10 Sept 2021 · 49 MW · 10 11 Sept 2021 · 129 MW · 18 12 Sept 2021 · 1,145 MW · 53 13 Sept 2021 · 118 MW · 16 14 Sept 2021 · 172 MW · 18 16 Sept 2021 · 54 MW · 5 18 Sept 2021 · 96 MW · 8 19 Sept 2021 · 73 MW · 6 20 Sept 2021 · 261 MW · 17 21 Sept 2021 · 62 MW · 6 22 Sept 2021 · 519 MW · 60 23 Sept 2021 · 4,125 MW · 190 24 Sept 2021 · 15,961 MW · 998 25 Sept 2021 · 9,128 MW · 1116 26 Sept 2021 · 4,133 MW · 309 27 Sept 2021 · 843 MW · 138 28 Sept 2021 · 2,433 MW · 154 29 Sept 2021 · 213 MW · 47 30 Sept 2021 · 2,995 MW · 192 1 Oct 2021 · 1,371 MW · 105 2 Oct 2021 · 210 MW · 52 3 Oct 2021 · 277 MW · 24 4 Oct 2021 · 2,092 MW · 95 5 Oct 2021 · 320 MW · 54 6 Oct 2021 · 25 MW · 4 7 Oct 2021 · 840 MW · 35 8 Oct 2021 · 122 MW · 21 9 Oct 2021 · 36 MW · 6 10 Oct 2021 · 1,898 MW · 50 13 Oct 2021 · 75 MW · 10 14 Oct 2021 · 254 MW · 28 15 Oct 2021 · 871 MW · 66
31 Aug 8 Sept 16 Sept 23 Sept 24 Sept 29 Sept 5 Oct 13 Oct

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
67km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 13.1 mm on 24 Oct.

This area had burned before

34% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 509 ha in 2017, 516 ha in 2018, 20,515 ha in 2019, 26,007 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 40,150 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

20 km
It burned the equivalent of 74% of the area of London (1,173 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. Cáceres 89,681 inhabitants where it started
    118,312 ha reached on 31 Aug
    4.8 %

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.

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)
31 Aug 38.4 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Sept 40.1 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Sept 39.1 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Sept 34.2 °C 41 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm High 32
4 Sept 39.5 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Sept 39.0 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Sept 39.5 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Sept 41.3 °C 24 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Sept 40.9 °C 23 % 52 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 48
9 Sept 27.7 °C 54 % 34 km/h 3.2 mm Low 8
10 Sept 29.8 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 18
11 Sept 36.4 °C 28 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Sept 39.9 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Sept 39.7 °C 28 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Sept 39.1 °C 28 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Sept 33.4 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
16 Sept 36.0 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Sept 38.5 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Sept 40.2 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Sept 41.1 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Sept 41.5 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Sept 39.5 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Sept 34.9 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Sept 38.2 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Sept 36.9 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Sept 39.0 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Sept 41.3 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
27 Sept 36.4 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 39
28 Sept 39.4 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Sept 39.9 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
30 Sept 41.1 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Oct 41.5 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Oct 40.6 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Oct 39.8 °C 29 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Oct 34.4 °C 42 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Oct 33.7 °C 42 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Oct 37.8 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Oct 36.7 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.7 mm High 32
8 Oct 39.2 °C 34 % 37 km/h 2.1 mm High 27
9 Oct 37.7 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Oct 37.4 °C 34 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Oct 34.1 °C 47 % 28 km/h 0.6 mm High 28
12 Oct 36.8 °C 44 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
13 Oct 39.6 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Oct 38.5 °C 37 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Oct 40.0 °C 25 % 67 km/h 0.6 mm Extreme 57
16 Oct after 32.5 °C 45 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Oct after 33.5 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.4 mm High 30
18 Oct after 31.4 °C 51 % 30 km/h 0.6 mm High 25
19 Oct after 35.8 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
20 Oct after 37.9 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Oct after 38.9 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 Oct after 39.7 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Oct after 40.2 °C 29 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Oct after 32.4 °C 49 % 41 km/h 13.1 mm Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Aug 2021
After · 22 Oct 2021

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 · 4,065Every 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 Cáceres fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 31 August 2021 to 15 October 2021 (46 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 September 2021 to 15 October 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 117,348 hectares (1,173.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cáceres (118,312 ha, 4.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.5 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 7 September 2021 → 31 August 2021.

RSS Changes to this page

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; 5 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 7 September 2021 to 15 October 2021. 4,065 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.

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.