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BR · Brazil · –

Colniza fire, 9 August 2019 Colniza

Out · last detection 25 Aug 2019, 04:40 UTC

The fire started on 9 August 2019 in Colniza, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,312 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1222th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1872 with a page). Number 573 in Brazil in 2019, of 973.

Burnt area
4,312ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
9 Aug 2019 – 25 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
9 Aug
2019
Heat detections
434
in a single hotspot: 252 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Average daily power
456MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Aug25 Aug
25 Aug 2019

How it evolved, day by day

9 Aug 2019 · 634 MW · 28 10 Aug 2019 · 92 MW · 20 11 Aug 2019 · 376 MW · 14 12 Aug 2019 · 1,584 MW · 67 13 Aug 2019 · 826 MW · 88 14 Aug 2019 · 515 MW · 62 15 Aug 2019 · 1,733 MW · 59 16 Aug 2019 · 194 MW · 24 17 Aug 2019 · 51 MW · 10 18 Aug 2019 · 28 MW · 7 19 Aug 2019 · 13 MW · 2 20 Aug 2019 · 30 MW · 4 22 Aug 2019 · 65 MW · 5 23 Aug 2019 · 994 MW · 21 24 Aug 2019 · 164 MW · 22 25 Aug 2019 · 5 MW · 1
9 Aug 15 Aug 22 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

36°high
44km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.9 mm on 26 Aug.

This area had burned before

49% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 669 ha in 2016, 2,025 ha in 2017, 1,254 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,096 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.7% of the area of London (43 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. Colniza where it started
    4,336 ha reached on 9 Aug
    0.2 %

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 area8.1 ha
Residents≈ 100

Inside the perimeter there were about 8.1 hectares of built-up land and about 100 residents (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)
9 Aug 36.0 °C 23 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Aug 34.6 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Aug 35.8 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Aug 35.2 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Aug 36.0 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Aug 33.6 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Aug 34.3 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Aug 35.5 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Aug 32.5 °C 47 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
18 Aug 33.1 °C 46 % 25 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 18
19 Aug 34.9 °C 34 % 28 km/h 1.0 mm High 24
20 Aug 34.5 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
21 Aug 35.8 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Aug 35.1 °C 33 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Aug 35.1 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Aug 34.6 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
25 Aug 32.1 °C 52 % 28 km/h 11.4 mm Very low 4
26 Aug after 34.8 °C 41 % 32 km/h 5.9 mm Very low 4

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 34.4, a minimum humidity of 23% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 20.

FWI at the start 34.4
Minimum humidity 23 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Aripuanã fire, August 2024
3,080 ha 31 days FWI 34.7 Min. humidity 22 % 231 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

16 days
median duration
3,922 ha
median area
5 %
went past 10,000 ha
1.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 13 of 20 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (4,312 ha against a median of 3,922 ha) and lasted 17 days, against 16 days.

In 7 of 20, 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 1.6 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

5.9 mmfirst rain
26 Augthe day after it ended
44km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 25 Aug, and on 26 Aug 5.9 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 13 of 20, with a median of 1.6 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 · 2 Aug 2019
After · 1 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 · 434Every 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 Colniza fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 9 August 2019 to 25 August 2019 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 9 August 2019 to 20 August 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,312 hectares (43.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Colniza (4,336 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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: 20. Their median duration was 16 days and their median area 3,922 ha; 5 % went past 10,000 ha. In 7 of 20, 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 1.6 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 20 August 2019 → 25 August 2019.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 9 August 2019 to 20 August 2019. 434 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.