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BR · Brazil · –

Colinas do Sul fire, 23 August 2019 Colinas do Sul, Minaçu

Out · last detection 30 Aug 2019, 17:20 UTC

The fire started on 23 August 2019 in Colinas do Sul, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,041 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 321th largest in Goiás since 2016 (of 488 with a page). Number 631 in Brazil in 2019, of 973.

Burnt area
4,041ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
23 Aug 2019 – 30 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
23 Aug
2019
Heat detections
118
in a single hotspot: 43 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
105MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Aug30 Aug
30 Aug 2019

How it evolved, day by day

23 Aug 2019 · 144 MW · 6 25 Aug 2019 · 16 MW · 3 26 Aug 2019 · 287 MW · 39 27 Aug 2019 · 68 MW · 22 28 Aug 2019 · 189 MW · 32 29 Aug 2019 · 21 MW · 10 30 Aug 2019 · 11 MW · 6
23 Aug 26 Aug 28 Aug 30 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
35km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,982 ha in 2017.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.6% of the area of London (40 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Colinas do Sul 4,030 inhabitants where it started
    4,058 ha reached on 23 Aug
    2.4 %
  2. Minaçu 27,075 inhabitants
    5 ha
    0.0 %

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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 55 % of the area in Brazil

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
23 Aug 31.9 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Aug 30.1 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Aug 30.5 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Aug 29.9 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Aug 29.4 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Aug 30.0 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Aug 30.5 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Aug 30.7 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
31 Aug after 31.7 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Sept after 33.1 °C 24 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Sept after 32.9 °C 23 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Sept after 33.3 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Sept after 33.6 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Sept after 33.1 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Sept after 32.0 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
7 Sept after 31.8 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Sept after 31.3 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Sept after 31.2 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 40.9, a minimum humidity of 26% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 29.

FWI at the start 40.9
Minimum humidity 26 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Niquelândia fire, August 2023
5,951 ha 8 days FWI 40.5 Min. humidity 25 % 81 km away, in 2023

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.0 mm on 26 Aug.

What happened to them

11 days
median duration
5,934 ha
median area
24 %
went past 10,000 ha
2.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 10 of 29 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (4,041 ha against a median of 5,934 ha) and lasted 8 days, against 11 days.

In 19 of 29, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.7 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
35km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 30 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 10 of 29, with a median of 2.7 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Aug 2019
After · 6 Sept 2019

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 · 118Every 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 Colinas do Sul fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 August 2019 and 30 August 2019: 8 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 4,041 hectares (40.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Colinas do Sul (4,058 ha, 2.4 %); Minaçu (5 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 29. Their median duration was 11 days and their median area 5,934 ha; 24 % went past 10,000 ha. In 19 of 29, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.7 mm.

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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 118 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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.