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Cáceres fire, 15 October 2021 Cáceres, Poconé

Out · last detection 24 Oct 2021, 05:52 UTC

The fire started on 15 October 2021 in Cáceres, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,384 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 993th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 367 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Burnt area
5,384ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
15 Oct 2021 – 24 Oct 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
15 Oct
2021
Heat detections
576
in a single hotspot: 420 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
10.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Oct 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Oct24 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

151718192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
64km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.7 mm on 26 Oct.

This area had burned before

71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,963 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. Cáceres 89,681 inhabitants where it started
    5,379 ha reached on 15 Oct
    0.2 %
  2. Poconé 31,217 inhabitants
    58 ha reached on 20 Oct
    0.0 %

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)
15 Oct 39.8 °C 27 % 64 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 49
16 Oct 32.0 °C 48 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Oct 33.0 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 Oct 31.4 °C 51 % 34 km/h 0.6 mm High 24
19 Oct 34.7 °C 36 % 26 km/h 0.6 mm High 29
20 Oct 37.3 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Oct 38.6 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Oct 38.9 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Oct 39.8 °C 30 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Oct 32.2 °C 50 % 44 km/h 7.0 mm Low 9
25 Oct after 32.7 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
26 Oct after 27.0 °C 59 % 20 km/h 4.7 mm Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Oct 2021
After · 31 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 · 576Every 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?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 October 2021 and 24 October 2021: 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 5,384 hectares (53.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cáceres (5,379 ha, 0.2 %); Poconé (58 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.