Cáceres fire, April 2024 Cáceres, Poconé
The fire started on 16 April 2024 in Cáceres, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 39 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,364 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 401th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 279 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 11,364ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 39days
- 16 Apr 2024 – 24 May 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 16 Apr
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 1,955
- in a single hotspot: 102 MW
- Danger at start
- 0
- Very low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 506MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,307 ha in 2020, 5,697 ha in 2021, 161 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,006 ha that had burned before.
- 6,020 ha Poconé fire, August 2020 78,512 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,635 ha Cáceres fire, October 2021 5,384 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,010 ha Poconé fire, October 2021 50,134 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 161 ha Barão de Melgaço fire, October 2023 464,290 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
11,469 ha reached on 16 Apr0.5 %
-
Poconé 31,217 inhabitants3 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Apr | 30.0 °C | 79 % | 31 km/h | 19.9 mm | Very low 0 |
| 17 Apr | 25.5 °C | 83 % | 31 km/h | 11.8 mm | Very low 0 |
| 18 Apr | 29.3 °C | 55 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 0 |
| 19 Apr | 31.8 °C | 57 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 20 Apr | 33.4 °C | 57 % | 26 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very low 2 |
| 21 Apr | 34.0 °C | 60 % | 31 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very low 4 |
| 22 Apr | 33.6 °C | 59 % | 31 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very low 4 |
| 23 Apr | 34.6 °C | 57 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 24 Apr | 35.2 °C | 52 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 25 Apr | 35.1 °C | 49 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 26 Apr | 35.1 °C | 47 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 27 Apr | 35.1 °C | 53 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 10 |
| 28 Apr | 34.4 °C | 57 % | 27 km/h | 0.7 mm | Low 7 |
| 29 Apr | 35.0 °C | 53 % | 43 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 10 |
| 30 Apr | 35.2 °C | 50 % | 48 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 1 May | 35.4 °C | 48 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 2 May | 35.1 °C | 48 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 3 May | 33.7 °C | 54 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 4 May | 34.2 °C | 45 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 5 May | 34.9 °C | 48 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 6 May | 35.2 °C | 43 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 7 May | 35.2 °C | 42 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 8 May | 35.2 °C | 49 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 9 May | 34.1 °C | 49 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 10 May | 34.8 °C | 45 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 11 May | 35.3 °C | 38 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 12 May | 35.4 °C | 41 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 13 May | 28.2 °C | 65 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 14 May | 18.7 °C | 75 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 15 May | 20.7 °C | 71 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 16 May | 31.8 °C | 51 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 17 May | 32.3 °C | 55 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 18 May | 24.4 °C | 72 % | 29 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 19 May | 20.2 °C | 68 % | 32 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 20 May | 26.8 °C | 58 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 21 May | 33.0 °C | 48 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 22 May | 34.2 °C | 51 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 23 May | 35.4 °C | 41 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 24 May | 25.7 °C | 71 % | 37 km/h | 2.9 mm | Low 6 |
| 25 May after | 20.3 °C | 62 % | 37 km/h | 1.1 mm | Low 7 |
| 26 May after | 17.2 °C | 71 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 27 May after | 17.7 °C | 64 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 28 May after | 20.9 °C | 53 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 29 May after | 24.8 °C | 46 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 30 May after | 28.9 °C | 44 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 31 May after | 32.0 °C | 40 % | 15 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 1 Jun after | 33.4 °C | 31 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 2 Jun after | 34.1 °C | 37 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 3 Jun after | 34.5 °C | 38 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 4 Jun after | 33.0 °C | 36 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 5 Jun after | 33.6 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 6 Jun after | 34.4 °C | 31 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 7 Jun after | 34.5 °C | 33 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 8 Jun after | 34.7 °C | 30 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 10 May 2024 the air beside the fire reached 53 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 30: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 1,955Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 78,512 haPoconé23 August 2020 · 52 days · 4 km away
- 49,800 haCáceres30 September 2024 · 27 days · 13 km away
- 16,109 haCáceresOctober 2019 · 13 days · 20 km away
- 16,341 haCáceres15 January 2024 · 34 days · 22 km away
- 11,427 haPoconéMay 2024 · 23 days · 24 km away
- 50,134 haPoconé3 October 2021 · 22 days · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cáceres fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 April 2024 and 24 May 2024: 39 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 11,364 hectares (113.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cáceres (11,469 ha, 0.5 %); Poconé (3 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, class 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 1,955 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.
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.