Cavalcante fire, 28 August 2019 Cavalcante, Colinas do Sul, Minaçu
The fire started on 28 August 2019 in Cavalcante, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 52,157 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 3th largest in Goiás since 2016 (of 548 with a page). Number 11 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 52,157ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 30days
- 28 Aug 2019 – 26 Sept 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 28 Aug
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 2,197
- in a single hotspot: 193 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 730MW
- 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: 10.5 mm on 29 Sept.
This area had burned before
64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 17,420 ha in 2016, 17,288 ha in 2017.
- 6,153 ha Cavalcante fire, August 2017 8,700 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,708 ha Colinas do Sul fire, August 2016 6,721 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,418 ha Cavalcante fire, August 2016 6,752 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,967 ha Cavalcante fire, September 2017 7,814 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,967 ha Colinas do Sul fire, August 2016 3,151 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,849 ha Colinas do Sul fire, September 2017 3,410 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 550 ha Minaçu fire, August 2017 20,358 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4 ha Cavalcante fire, October 2017 36,002 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
-
24,185 ha reached on 4 Sept3.5 %
-
Colinas do Sul 4,030 inhabitants21,066 ha reached on 28 Aug12 %
-
Minaçu 27,075 inhabitants7,208 ha reached on 28 Aug2.5 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Aug | 33.9 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 29 Aug | 34.5 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 30 Aug | 34.9 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 31 Aug | 35.7 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 1 Sept | 36.3 °C | 25 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 2 Sept | 37.2 °C | 18 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 3 Sept | 37.6 °C | 20 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 4 Sept | 37.5 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 5 Sept | 37.2 °C | 17 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 6 Sept | 35.6 °C | 22 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 7 Sept | 35.6 °C | 27 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 8 Sept | 35.2 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 9 Sept | 35.3 °C | 28 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 10 Sept | 36.6 °C | 24 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 11 Sept | 36.8 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Sept | 37.7 °C | 16 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 13 Sept | 38.5 °C | 14 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 14 Sept | 37.6 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 15 Sept | 36.1 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 16 Sept | 36.1 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 17 Sept | 36.4 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 18 Sept | 37.6 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 19 Sept | 38.6 °C | 19 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 20 Sept | 37.7 °C | 25 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 21 Sept | 37.9 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 22 Sept | 37.6 °C | 25 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Sept | 36.3 °C | 25 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 24 Sept | 36.4 °C | 27 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 25 Sept | 35.8 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 26 Sept | 32.5 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 27 Sept after | 34.3 °C | 38 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 28 Sept after | 34.4 °C | 41 % | 28 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 33 |
| 29 Sept after | 34.0 °C | 42 % | 22 km/h | 10.5 mm | Low 5 |
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.
Detections table · 2,197Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 42,559 haCavalcante22 September 2025 · 18 days · 7 km away
- 20,358 haMinaçuAugust 2017 · 12 days · 24 km away
- 36,002 haCavalcante4 October 2017 · 22 days · 29 km away
- 15,114 haCavalcante9 September 2021 · 15 days · 33 km away
- 44,828 haCavalcante14 October 2017 · 15 days · 37 km away
- 19,550 haCavalcante19 September 2019 · 9 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cavalcante fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 28 August 2019 to 26 September 2019 (30 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 September 2019 to 21 September 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 52,157 hectares (521.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Cavalcante (24,185 ha, 3.5 %); Colinas do Sul (21,066 ha, 12 %); Minaçu (7,208 ha, 2.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 21 September 2019 → 26 September 2019.
- Start date: 4 September 2019 → 28 August 2019.
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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 4 September 2019 to 21 September 2019. 2,197 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.
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.