How long did the Cristópolis fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 September 2026 and 23 September 2026: 11 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 3,429 hectares (34.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cristópolis (3,048 ha, 2.9 %); Cotegipe (402 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.

BR · Brazil · 2026-09-13 → 2026-09-23

Cristópolis fire, September 2026 Cristópolis, Cotegipe

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2026, 15:58 UTC

The fire started on 13 September 2026 in Cristópolis, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,429 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 403th largest in Bahia since 2016 (of 466 with a page). Number 622 in Brazil in 2026, of 749.

Burnt area: 3,429ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 11days; 13 Sept 2026 – 23 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 13 Sept; 2026
Heat detections: 91; in a single hotspot: 63 MW
Danger at start: 46; Very high · FWI index
Average daily power: 190MW; detected power per day, on average

Play back 23 Sept 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Sept23 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

13 Sept 15 Sept 18 Sept 22 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

37°high

50km/h · peak gust

16%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 3 Oct.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 37 ha in 2025.

What happened to each town

Cristópolis 13,993 inhabitants where it started

3,048 ha reached on 13 Sept

2.9 %
Cotegipe 13,063 inhabitants

402 ha reached on 16 Sept

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)
13 Sept	36.2 °C	18 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
14 Sept	35.4 °C	22 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
15 Sept	36.0 °C	20 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
16 Sept	37.3 °C	16 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
17 Sept	36.0 °C	16 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
18 Sept	34.2 °C	17 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
19 Sept	32.3 °C	28 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
20 Sept	33.1 °C	22 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
21 Sept	34.5 °C	24 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
22 Sept	36.2 °C	20 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
23 Sept	36.7 °C	18 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
24 Sept after	34.8 °C	25 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
25 Sept after	32.2 °C	35 %	29 km/h	0.4 mm	High 34
26 Sept after	35.0 °C	24 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
27 Sept after	36.5 °C	17 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
28 Sept after	34.6 °C	21 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
29 Sept after	35.5 °C	22 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
30 Sept after	36.6 °C	18 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
1 Oct after	37.2 °C	16 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
2 Oct after	36.2 °C	22 %	66 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
3 Oct after	31.8 °C	47 %	27 km/h	1.9 mm	Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 6 Sept 2026

After · 30 Sept 2026

Before After

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 25 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 42 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak42 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM1046 µg/m³

Optical depth1.06

WHO 15

11121314151617181920212223242526

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 91Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cristópolis fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 September 2026 and 23 September 2026: 11 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 3,429 hectares (34.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cristópolis (3,048 ha, 2.9 %); Cotegipe (402 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned