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Castilho fire, August 2019 Castilho, Três Lagoas

Out · last detection 30 Aug 2019, 17:18 UTC

The fire started on 27 August 2019 in Castilho, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,891 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 60th largest in São Paulo since 2016 (of 97 with a page). Number 665 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.

Burnt area
3,891ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
27 Aug 2019 – 29 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
27 Aug
2019
Heat detections
141
in a single hotspot: 260 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
6.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Aug 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Aug29 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

27282930

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
30km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,613 ha in 2017, 1,808 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,723 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Castilho 19,977 inhabitants where it started
    3,899 ha reached on 27 Aug
    3.6 %
  2. Três Lagoas 132,152 inhabitants
    15 ha
    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)
27 Aug 32.1 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
28 Aug 31.8 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Aug 33.5 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Aug after 35.6 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
31 Aug after 37.3 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Sept after 30.3 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.6 mm High 31
2 Sept after 30.1 °C 48 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
3 Sept after 34.1 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm High 25
4 Sept after 34.6 °C 38 % 20 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
5 Sept after 33.2 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Sept after 36.7 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Sept after 37.5 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Sept after 38.0 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Sept after 38.7 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Aug 2019
After · 5 Sept 2019

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 · 141Every 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 Castilho fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 August 2019 and 29 August 2019: 3 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 3,891 hectares (38.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Castilho (3,899 ha, 3.6 %); Três Lagoas (15 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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

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.