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Comodoro fire, August 2017 Comodoro

Out · last detection 1 Sept 2017, 18:11 UTC

The fire started on 27 August 2017 in Comodoro, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,009 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1992th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 986 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
3,009ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
27 Aug 2017 – 31 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
27 Aug
2017
Heat detections
120
in a single hotspot: 146 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Aug31 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

27282930311

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
37km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days 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

  1. Comodoro 18,238 inhabitants where it started
    3,035 ha reached on 27 Aug
    0.1 %

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)
27 Aug 36.0 °C 33 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
28 Aug 35.3 °C 33 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
29 Aug 35.6 °C 34 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
30 Aug 33.7 °C 44 % 32 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 16
31 Aug 34.1 °C 45 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
1 Sept after 36.4 °C 34 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
2 Sept after 35.0 °C 39 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
3 Sept after 36.7 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
4 Sept after 36.1 °C 32 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
5 Sept after 34.1 °C 32 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Sept after 35.4 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Sept after 35.2 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
8 Sept after 34.2 °C 42 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Sept after 33.4 °C 45 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
10 Sept after 33.1 °C 48 % 32 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 20
11 Sept after 30.4 °C 64 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Aug 2017
After · 7 Sept 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 · 120Every 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 Comodoro fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 August 2017 and 31 August 2017: 5 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 3,009 hectares (30.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Comodoro (3,035 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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.