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Cláudia fire, 8 August 2018 Cláudia, Itaúba

Out · last detection 14 Aug 2018, 16:24 UTC

The fire started on 8 August 2018 in Cláudia, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,290 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 1786th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 248 in Brazil in 2018, of 291.

Burnt area
3,290ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
8 Aug 2018 – 14 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
8 Aug
2018
Heat detections
271
in a single hotspot: 424 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
11.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Aug 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Aug14 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

891011121314

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
32km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 16 Aug.

This area had burned before

3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 86 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Cláudia 9,593 inhabitants where it started
    3,300 ha reached on 8 Aug
    0.8 %
  2. Itaúba 5,020 inhabitants
    8 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)
8 Aug 35.6 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Aug 32.3 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Aug 31.6 °C 47 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Aug 33.6 °C 39 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
12 Aug 33.8 °C 36 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Aug 33.5 °C 37 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Aug 34.4 °C 31 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Aug after 31.6 °C 45 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Aug after 33.1 °C 43 % 23 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Aug 2018
After · 21 Aug 2018

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 · 271Every 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 Cláudia fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 August 2018 and 14 August 2018: 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 3,290 hectares (32.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cláudia (3,300 ha, 0.8 %); Itaúba (8 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.