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Cavalcante fire, 17 August 2017 Cavalcante

Out · last detection 27 Aug 2017, 16:24 UTC

The fire started on 17 August 2017 in Cavalcante, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,700 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 114th largest in Goiás since 2016 (of 548 with a page). Number 217 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
8,700ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
17 Aug 2017 – 27 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
17 Aug
2017
Heat detections
287
in a single hotspot: 30 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Aug27 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
44km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Cavalcante 9,583 inhabitants where it started
    8,756 ha reached on 17 Aug
    1.2 %

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)
17 Aug 31.6 °C 23 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Aug 32.4 °C 22 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Aug 32.9 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Aug 32.7 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Aug 32.5 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Aug 30.5 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Aug 30.1 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Aug 29.4 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Aug 29.7 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Aug 31.0 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Aug 32.3 °C 20 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Aug after 33.1 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Aug after 32.5 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Aug after 33.1 °C 19 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
31 Aug after 33.5 °C 16 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Sept after 32.3 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Sept after 30.6 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Sept after 29.6 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Sept after 28.7 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Sept after 29.9 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Sept after 31.1 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Aug 2017
After · 3 Sept 2017

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 · 287Every 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 Cavalcante fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 August 2017 and 27 August 2017: 11 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 8,700 hectares (87.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cavalcante (8,756 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.