Corumbá fire, 25 July 2020 Corumbá
The fire started on 25 July 2020 in Corumbá, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,420 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 280th largest in Mato Grosso do Sul since 2016 (of 506 with a page). Number 464 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.
- Burnt area
- 5,420ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 25 Jul 2020 – 29 Jul 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 25 Jul
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 157
- in a single hotspot: 67 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,925 ha in 2017, 2,665 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,177 ha that had burned before.
- 2,497 ha Puerto Suárez fire, August 2019 151,193 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,395 ha Puerto Suárez fire, August 2017 5,995 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,996 ha Corumbá fire, July 2017 5,716 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 544 ha Corumbá fire, September 2017 13,368 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 59 ha Corumbá fire, September 2017 5,267 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 51 ha Puerto Suárez fire, September 2017 9,160 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
3,545 ha reached on 25 Jul0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Jul | 18.8 °C | 50 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 26 Jul | 27.4 °C | 36 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 27 Jul | 33.7 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 28 Jul | 32.2 °C | 32 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 29 Jul | 19.7 °C | 39 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 30 Jul after | 26.8 °C | 33 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 31 Jul after | 32.0 °C | 34 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 1 Aug after | 34.2 °C | 27 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 2 Aug after | 34.1 °C | 20 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 3 Aug after | 34.1 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 4 Aug after | 35.5 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 5 Aug after | 34.0 °C | 14 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 6 Aug after | 34.0 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 7 Aug after | 34.9 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 8 Aug after | 35.2 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 9 Aug after | 35.5 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 10 Aug after | 36.3 °C | 17 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 157Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Corumbá fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 July 2020 and 29 July 2020: 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 5,420 hectares (54.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Corumbá (3,545 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 56 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.
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
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.