Cáceres fire, 30 September 2024 Cáceres, Poconé
The fire started on 30 September 2024 in Cáceres, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 49,800 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 47th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 48 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 49,800ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 27days
- 30 Sept 2024 – 26 Oct 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 30 Sept
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 4,132
- in a single hotspot: 508 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 2.8GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.2 mm on 1 Nov.
This area had burned before
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 12,241 ha in 2019, 46,398 ha in 2020, 26,778 ha in 2021, 1,621 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 45,586 ha that had burned before.
- 29,058 ha Poconé fire, August 2020 78,512 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 22,527 ha Poconé fire, October 2021 50,134 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 12,241 ha Cáceres fire, October 2019 16,109 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,180 ha Barão de Melgaço fire, July 2020 801,620 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,876 ha Poconé fire, October 2021 5,672 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,329 ha Poconé fire, January 2020 5,620 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,439 ha Barão de Melgaço fire, October 2023 464,290 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 182 ha Poconé fire, November 2023 16,425 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
-
28,998 ha reached on 30 Sept1.2 %
-
Poconé 31,217 inhabitants21,198 ha reached on 4 Oct1.2 %
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 2025Inside 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Sept | 38.2 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 1 Oct | 38.2 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 2 Oct | 38.8 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 3 Oct | 34.0 °C | 48 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 32 |
| 4 Oct | 35.9 °C | 41 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 5 Oct | 39.9 °C | 32 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 6 Oct | 40.9 °C | 24 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 7 Oct | 38.4 °C | 32 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 8 Oct | 38.7 °C | 32 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 9 Oct | 37.2 °C | 34 % | 43 km/h | 2.4 mm | High 30 |
| 10 Oct | 34.2 °C | 49 % | 32 km/h | 12.1 mm | Very low 5 |
| 11 Oct | 34.1 °C | 50 % | 45 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 12 Oct | 37.2 °C | 37 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 13 Oct | 38.1 °C | 35 % | 28 km/h | 1.3 mm | High 25 |
| 14 Oct | 37.2 °C | 39 % | 32 km/h | 14.1 mm | Low 6 |
| 15 Oct | 36.4 °C | 40 % | 23 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 16 Oct | 32.9 °C | 52 % | 28 km/h | 2.5 mm | Low 6 |
| 17 Oct | 32.7 °C | 53 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 18 Oct | 34.6 °C | 46 % | 31 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 19 Oct | 29.5 °C | 62 % | 25 km/h | 6.9 mm | Very low 1 |
| 20 Oct | 31.8 °C | 52 % | 18 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very low 4 |
| 21 Oct | 35.1 °C | 39 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 22 Oct | 35.1 °C | 44 % | 39 km/h | 8.1 mm | Very low 5 |
| 23 Oct | 36.4 °C | 41 % | 37 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 24 Oct | 37.4 °C | 37 % | 45 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 25 Oct | 37.2 °C | 40 % | 44 km/h | 1.6 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 26 Oct | 29.3 °C | 66 % | 38 km/h | 45.6 mm | Very low 0 |
| 27 Oct after | 32.2 °C | 55 % | 20 km/h | 0.8 mm | Very low 1 |
| 28 Oct after | 33.4 °C | 54 % | 22 km/h | 2.7 mm | Very low 1 |
| 29 Oct after | 33.4 °C | 59 % | 22 km/h | 3.1 mm | Very low 1 |
| 30 Oct after | 35.1 °C | 50 % | 19 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very low 4 |
| 31 Oct after | 35.3 °C | 46 % | 22 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 8 |
| 1 Nov after | 32.4 °C | 54 % | 39 km/h | 8.2 mm | Very low 1 |
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 6 October 2024 the air beside the fire reached 295 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 203: 14 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 · 4,132Every 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 haPoconé17 August 2020 · 65 days · 9 km away
- 16,109 haCáceresOctober 2019 · 15 days · 10 km away
- 50,134 haPoconé3 October 2021 · 29 days · 12 km away
- 11,364 haCáceresApril 2024 · 44 days · 13 km away
- 11,427 haPoconéMay 2024 · 26 days · 21 km away
- 16,425 haPoconé6 November 2023 · 21 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cáceres fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 September 2024 and 26 October 2024: 27 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 49,800 hectares (498.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cáceres (28,998 ha, 1.2 %); Poconé (21,198 ha, 1.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.9 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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 · 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; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 4,132 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.
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.