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Cuiabá fire, August 2017 Cuiabá

Out · last detection 29 Aug 2017, 04:54 UTC

The fire started on 26 August 2017 in Cuiabá, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,659 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1588th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 736 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
3,659ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
26 Aug 2017 – 29 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
26 Aug
2017
Heat detections
102
in a single hotspot: 68 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
846MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Aug29 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

26272829

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
36km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 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. Cuiabá where it started
    3,680 ha reached on 25 Aug
    1.1 %

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)
25 Aug 34.9 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
26 Aug 35.8 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
27 Aug 36.6 °C 32 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
28 Aug 36.8 °C 30 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
29 Aug 37.2 °C 32 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
30 Aug after 35.9 °C 36 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
31 Aug after 32.7 °C 48 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Sept after 37.2 °C 28 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
2 Sept after 37.8 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Sept after 37.0 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Sept after 35.7 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Sept after 35.8 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Sept after 34.8 °C 28 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Sept after 36.1 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 Sept after 37.6 °C 31 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Sept after 38.2 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Sept after 37.9 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
11 Sept after 35.1 °C 38 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Sept after 35.2 °C 44 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
13 Sept after 37.1 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Aug 2017
After · 5 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 · 102Every 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 Cuiabá fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 August 2017 and 29 August 2017: 4 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 3,659 hectares (36.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cuiabá (3,680 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.