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Cavalcante fire, 9 September 2017 Cavalcante, Colinas do Sul

Out · last detection 21 Sept 2017, 04:22 UTC

The fire started on 9 September 2017 in Cavalcante, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,814 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 134th largest in Goiás since 2016 (of 548 with a page). Number 244 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
7,814ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
9 Sept 2017 – 21 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
9 Sept
2017
Heat detections
283
in a single hotspot: 44 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Sept21 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

9101112131415161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
44km/h · peak gust
19%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
    7,660 ha reached on 9 Sept
    1.1 %
  2. Colinas do Sul 4,030 inhabitants
    205 ha reached on 15 Sept
    0.1 %

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)
9 Sept 33.2 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Sept 32.9 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Sept 34.0 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Sept 32.7 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Sept 31.6 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Sept 32.4 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Sept 32.3 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Sept 31.7 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Sept 31.5 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Sept 32.3 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Sept 32.7 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Sept 33.3 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Sept 28.4 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Sept after 28.6 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Sept after 32.2 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Sept after 33.1 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Sept after 32.8 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Sept after 32.5 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Sept after 32.1 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Sept after 31.9 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Sept after 35.4 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Sept after 33.0 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Oct after 32.9 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Sept 2017
After · 28 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 · 283Every 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 9 September 2017 and 21 September 2017: 13 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 7,814 hectares (78.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cavalcante (7,660 ha, 1.1 %); Colinas do Sul (205 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.