How long did the Cáceres fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 July 2024 and 4 August 2024: 35 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 34,393 hectares (343.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Cáceres (12,372 ha, 0.5 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.

BR · Brazil · 2024-07-01 → 2024-08-04

Cáceres fire, July 2024 Cáceres

Out · last detection 5 Aug 2024, 17:32 UTC

The fire started on 1 July 2024 in Cáceres, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 35 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 34,393 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 83th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 85 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Compare with…

Suggestions: San Matías · 2021 Cáceres · 2020

Burnt area: 34,393ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 35days; 1 Jul 2024 – 4 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 1 Jul; 2024
Heat detections: 1,552; in a single hotspot: 0 MW
Danger at start: 22; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 1.5GW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Jul4 Aug

Play back 5 Aug 2024

How it evolved, day by day

1 Jul 5 Jul 9 Jul 21 Jul 30 Jul 2 Aug 3 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

38°high

45km/h · peak gust

19%lowest humidity

It had gone 37 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 22% of the area of London (344 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

Cáceres 89,681 inhabitants where it started

12,372 ha

0.5 %

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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025

Built-up area< 0.1 ha

Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
1 Jul	27.9 °C	38 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
2 Jul	33.7 °C	37 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
3 Jul	35.3 °C	28 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
4 Jul	35.5 °C	32 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
5 Jul	35.6 °C	34 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
6 Jul	27.4 °C	41 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
7 Jul	28.5 °C	42 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
8 Jul	20.1 °C	50 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
9 Jul	19.4 °C	53 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
10 Jul	21.7 °C	50 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
11 Jul	29.6 °C	40 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
12 Jul	19.3 °C	52 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
13 Jul	21.9 °C	39 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
14 Jul	23.4 °C	37 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
15 Jul	26.5 °C	36 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
16 Jul	29.8 °C	34 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
17 Jul	33.3 °C	35 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
18 Jul	34.3 °C	30 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
19 Jul	35.3 °C	24 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
20 Jul	35.5 °C	20 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
21 Jul	35.4 °C	21 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
22 Jul	34.0 °C	23 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
23 Jul	34.9 °C	25 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
24 Jul	35.5 °C	21 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
25 Jul	35.4 °C	29 %	14 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
26 Jul	36.2 °C	27 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
27 Jul	36.8 °C	23 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
28 Jul	36.2 °C	19 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
29 Jul	34.6 °C	28 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
30 Jul	27.7 °C	51 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
31 Jul	35.3 °C	34 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
1 Aug	37.1 °C	27 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
2 Aug	37.3 °C	23 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
3 Aug	37.2 °C	25 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
4 Aug	37.5 °C	22 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
5 Aug after	36.9 °C	26 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
6 Aug after	35.6 °C	17 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
7 Aug after	37.1 °C	23 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
8 Aug after	27.1 °C	51 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
9 Aug after	16.1 °C	45 %	45 km/h	0.3 mm	High 28
10 Aug after	23.2 °C	23 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
11 Aug after	28.6 °C	23 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
12 Aug after	29.2 °C	21 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
13 Aug after	29.9 °C	23 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
14 Aug after	34.4 °C	22 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 24 Jun 2024

After · 11 Aug 2024

Before After

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 · Copernicus

On 25 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 182 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 79: 5.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak182 µg/m³

Days over the guideline17 days

PM10261 µg/m³

Optical depth1.77

WHO 15

2930123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 0Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cáceres fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 July 2024 and 4 August 2024: 35 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 34,393 hectares (343.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Cáceres (12,372 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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 ›

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page · 4 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

27 October 2026 Last day with fire: 10 August 2024 → 4 August 2024.
27 October 2026 Start date: 24 June 2024 → 1 July 2024.
25 October 2026 Last day with fire: 4 August 2024 → 10 August 2024.
25 October 2026 Start date: 1 July 2024 → 24 June 2024.

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No 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.
Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

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.

Where it burned