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Corumbá fire, 3 September 2020 Corumbá, Poconé

Out · last detection 13 Oct 2020, 17:32 UTC

The fire started on 3 September 2020 in Corumbá, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 40 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,471 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 144th largest in Mato Grosso do Sul since 2016 (of 506 with a page). Number 216 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Corumbá · 2024Corumbá · 2020Corumbá · 2025Corumbá · 2020

Burnt area
9,471ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
40days
3 Sept 2020 – 12 Oct 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
3 Sept
2020
Heat detections
1,272
in a single hotspot: 486 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Average daily power
677MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Sept12 Oct
13 Oct 2020

How it evolved, day by day

3 Sept 2020 · 102 MW · 17 4 Sept 2020 · 128 MW · 20 5 Sept 2020 · 190 MW · 20 6 Sept 2020 · 869 MW · 54 7 Sept 2020 · 66 MW · 18 8 Sept 2020 · 51 MW · 2 9 Sept 2020 · 175 MW · 13 10 Sept 2020 · 26 MW · 9 11 Sept 2020 · 71 MW · 10 12 Sept 2020 · 703 MW · 22 13 Sept 2020 · 73 MW · 9 14 Sept 2020 · 33 MW · 9 15 Sept 2020 · 238 MW · 15 16 Sept 2020 · 260 MW · 22 17 Sept 2020 · 160 MW · 15 18 Sept 2020 · 177 MW · 20 19 Sept 2020 · 13 MW · 3 20 Sept 2020 · 278 MW · 17 21 Sept 2020 · 7,135 MW · 154 22 Sept 2020 · 545 MW · 44 23 Sept 2020 · 948 MW · 28 24 Sept 2020 · 731 MW · 79 25 Sept 2020 · 1,451 MW · 96 26 Sept 2020 · 2,497 MW · 106 27 Sept 2020 · 1,720 MW · 96 28 Sept 2020 · 442 MW · 80 29 Sept 2020 · 115 MW · 22 30 Sept 2020 · 1,421 MW · 51 1 Oct 2020 · 842 MW · 28 2 Oct 2020 · 203 MW · 18 3 Oct 2020 · 73 MW · 11 4 Oct 2020 · 30 MW · 6 5 Oct 2020 · 238 MW · 17 6 Oct 2020 · 68 MW · 13 7 Oct 2020 · 233 MW · 20 8 Oct 2020 · 393 MW · 34 9 Oct 2020 · 4,270 MW · 29 10 Oct 2020 · 195 MW · 20 11 Oct 2020 · 97 MW · 6 12 Oct 2020 · 343 MW · 12 13 Oct 2020 · 167 MW · 7
3 Sept 9 Sept 15 Sept 21 Sept 27 Sept 3 Oct 9 Oct

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
54km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 13 Oct.

This area had burned before

29% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,705 ha in 2019.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 6% of the area of London (95 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. Corumbá 96,268 inhabitants where it started
    9,374 ha reached on 3 Sept
    0.1 %
  2. Poconé 31,217 inhabitants
    87 ha reached on 22 Sept
    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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
3 Sept 31.8 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Sept 35.3 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Sept 37.4 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Sept 37.7 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Sept 35.0 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Sept 30.5 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Sept 37.1 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Sept 37.9 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Sept 39.3 °C 20 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Sept 38.4 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Sept 39.0 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
14 Sept 36.3 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 Sept 32.3 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Sept 37.2 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Sept 35.6 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Sept 36.0 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Sept 33.9 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Sept 31.1 °C 48 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Sept 25.2 °C 55 % 47 km/h 3.8 mm Low 8
22 Sept 25.5 °C 57 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
23 Sept 35.4 °C 36 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
24 Sept 39.1 °C 18 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Sept 40.1 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Sept 38.9 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Sept 38.2 °C 29 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Sept 34.8 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Sept 38.5 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Sept 40.9 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Oct 40.7 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Oct 39.3 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Oct 39.6 °C 22 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Oct 38.7 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Oct 38.7 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Oct 39.7 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Oct 39.9 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Oct 41.3 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 Oct 42.0 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Oct 40.5 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Oct 36.7 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Oct 36.3 °C 39 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Oct after 38.7 °C 33 % 29 km/h 1.1 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Aug 2020
After · 19 Oct 2020

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 · 1,272Every 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 Corumbá fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 3 September 2020 to 12 October 2020 (40 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 September 2020 to 5 October 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 9,471 hectares (94.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Corumbá (9,374 ha, 0.1 %); Poconé (87 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 42.0 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 5 October 2020 → 12 October 2020.
  2. Start date: 10 September 2020 → 3 September 2020.

RSS Changes to this page

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 10 September 2020 to 5 October 2020. 1,272 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.