How long did the Cocalinho fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 August 2020 and 19 September 2020: 25 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 5,333 hectares (53.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Cocalinho (5,369 ha, 0.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 40.3 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.

BR · Brazil · 2020-08-26 → 2020-09-19

Cocalinho fire, August 2020 Cocalinho

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2020, 04:09 UTC

The fire started on 26 August 2020 in Cocalinho, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 25 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,333 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1003th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 478 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area: 5,333ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 25days; 26 Aug 2020 – 19 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 26 Aug; 2020
Heat detections: 425; in a single hotspot: 152 MW
Danger at start: 46; Very high · FWI index
Average daily power: 240MW; detected power per day, on average

Play back 19 Sept 2020

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Aug19 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

26 Aug 30 Aug 3 Sept 7 Sept 11 Sept 13 Sept 15 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

40°high

45km/h · peak gust

13%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

Cocalinho 6,220 inhabitants where it started

5,369 ha reached on 26 Aug

0.3 %

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)
26 Aug	37.2 °C	20 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
27 Aug	37.6 °C	14 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
28 Aug	37.6 °C	14 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
29 Aug	37.4 °C	19 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
30 Aug	38.1 °C	17 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
31 Aug	38.4 °C	17 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
1 Sept	37.5 °C	17 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
2 Sept	36.3 °C	19 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
3 Sept	36.6 °C	18 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
4 Sept	36.3 °C	21 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
5 Sept	37.0 °C	20 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
6 Sept	37.3 °C	19 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
7 Sept	37.5 °C	20 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
8 Sept	38.5 °C	18 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
9 Sept	38.6 °C	20 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
10 Sept	38.7 °C	17 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
11 Sept	38.1 °C	17 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
12 Sept	38.1 °C	13 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
13 Sept	36.8 °C	19 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
14 Sept	36.7 °C	21 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
15 Sept	36.9 °C	22 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
16 Sept	37.8 °C	17 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
17 Sept	38.0 °C	19 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
18 Sept	40.3 °C	17 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
19 Sept	39.5 °C	21 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
20 Sept after	38.1 °C	28 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
21 Sept after	37.1 °C	30 %	22 km/h	0.9 mm	High 33
22 Sept after	30.2 °C	53 %	27 km/h	5.1 mm	Low 6
23 Sept after	32.8 °C	44 %	31 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 18
24 Sept after	38.0 °C	27 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
25 Sept after	37.6 °C	31 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
26 Sept after	35.9 °C	30 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
27 Sept after	37.8 °C	26 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
28 Sept after	40.0 °C	18 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
29 Sept after	41.6 °C	14 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
30 Sept after	40.6 °C	19 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
1 Oct after	40.0 °C	21 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
2 Oct after	40.3 °C	19 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
3 Oct after	41.0 °C	18 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
4 Oct after	41.5 °C	18 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
5 Oct after	41.7 °C	17 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 19 Aug 2020

After · 26 Sept 2020

Before After

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 · 425Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cocalinho fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 August 2020 and 19 September 2020: 25 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 5,333 hectares (53.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Cocalinho (5,369 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 40.3 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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.

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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.

Where it burned