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Cuiabá fire, 8 September 2019 Cuiabá, Acorizal

Out · last detection 20 Sept 2019, 04:54 UTC

The fire started on 8 September 2019 in Cuiabá, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,054 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 1958th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 950 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.1 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,054ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
8 Sept 2019 – 20 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
8 Sept
2019
Heat detections
97
in a single hotspot: 14 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
394MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Sept20 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

891011121314151617181920

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
47km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 22 Sept.

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
    2,879 ha reached on 8 Sept
    0.9 %
  2. Acorizal 5,014 inhabitants
    189 ha reached on 10 Sept
    0.2 %

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)
8 Sept 36.4 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Sept 36.8 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Sept 36.7 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Sept 37.3 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Sept 35.4 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Sept 29.9 °C 50 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Sept 35.4 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Sept 38.0 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Sept 38.1 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Sept 38.0 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Sept 37.2 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Sept 35.7 °C 37 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Sept 36.9 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Sept after 34.3 °C 42 % 36 km/h 0.3 mm High 35
22 Sept after 30.5 °C 55 % 38 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Sept 2019
After · 27 Sept 2019

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 · 97Every 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 8 September 2019 and 20 September 2019: 13 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 3,054 hectares (30.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cuiabá (2,879 ha, 0.9 %); Acorizal (189 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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
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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.