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Cocalinho fire, 6 September 2017 Cocalinho, Formoso do Araguaia

Out · last detection 27 Sept 2017, 16:43 UTC

The fire started on 6 September 2017 in Cocalinho, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 18,469 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 207th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 75 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
18,469ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
6 Sept 2017 – 26 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
6 Sept
2017
Heat detections
820
in a single hotspot: 0 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
16.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Sept26 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

67891011121314151617181920222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
51km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 26.7 mm on 2 Oct.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 134 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Cocalinho 6,220 inhabitants where it started
    18,431 ha
    1.1 %
  2. Formoso do Araguaia
    84 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)
6 Sept 37.2 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
7 Sept 37.7 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Sept 37.5 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 Sept 39.0 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
10 Sept 39.0 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Sept 39.2 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
12 Sept 38.4 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Sept 37.2 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
14 Sept 38.1 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
15 Sept 37.9 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Sept 38.6 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Sept 37.0 °C 20 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
18 Sept 37.9 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Sept 39.4 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Sept 38.4 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
21 Sept 32.8 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Sept 35.8 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Sept 37.8 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Sept 38.9 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Sept 38.9 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
26 Sept 38.7 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Sept after 36.5 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Sept after 36.3 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Sept after 39.9 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Sept after 36.8 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Oct after 37.9 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Oct after 35.0 °C 44 % 40 km/h 26.7 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Aug 2017
After · 3 Oct 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 · 0Every 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 Cocalinho fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 September 2017 and 26 September 2017: 21 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 18,469 hectares (184.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cocalinho (18,431 ha, 1.1 %); Formoso do Araguaia (84 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.4 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, class Extreme.
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.