Skip to content
worldfires
BR · Brazil · →

Cajuru fire, September 2020 Cajuru, Santo Antônio da Alegria

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2020, 04:05 UTC

The fire started on 7 September 2020 in Cajuru, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,885 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 62th largest in São Paulo since 2016 (of 97 with a page). Number 669 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area
3,885ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
7 Sept 2020 – 13 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
7 Sept
2020
Heat detections
146
in a single hotspot: 154 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Sept13 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

7891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
35km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 20 Sept.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Cajuru 23,830 inhabitants where it started
    2,899 ha reached on 7 Sept
    4.4 %
  2. Santo Antônio da Alegria 6,775 inhabitants
    1,004 ha reached on 11 Sept
    3.2 %

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)
7 Sept 30.4 °C 14 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Sept 30.9 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Sept 31.2 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Sept 31.8 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Sept 31.9 °C 14 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Sept 31.7 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Sept 29.9 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Sept after 29.5 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Sept after 28.8 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Sept after 29.2 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Sept after 30.9 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Sept after 30.9 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Sept after 28.7 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 39
20 Sept after 21.3 °C 47 % 38 km/h 2.4 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Aug 2020
After · 20 Sept 2020

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 · 146Every 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 Cajuru fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 September 2020 and 13 September 2020: 7 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 3,885 hectares (38.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cajuru (2,899 ha, 4.4 %); Santo Antônio da Alegria (1,004 ha, 3.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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

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.