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Cuiabá fire, 26 August 2020 Cuiabá, Santo Antônio do Leverger

Out · last detection 8 Sept 2020, 16:48 UTC

The fire started on 26 August 2020 in Cuiabá, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,363 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 680th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 309 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area
7,363ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
26 Aug 2020 – 7 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
26 Aug
2020
Heat detections
262
in a single hotspot: 202 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Aug7 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

26272829303112345678

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
41km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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
    4,073 ha reached on 26 Aug
    1.2 %
  2. Santo Antônio do Leverger 650,877 inhabitants
    3,323 ha reached on 31 Aug
    0.4 %

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)
26 Aug 38.2 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Aug 37.9 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Aug 39.3 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
29 Aug 39.2 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
30 Aug 39.3 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
31 Aug 39.2 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
1 Sept 35.8 °C 29 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Sept 35.7 °C 22 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Sept 36.4 °C 24 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Sept 38.3 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Sept 38.6 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Sept 38.9 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Sept 38.6 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
8 Sept after 36.9 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Sept after 39.6 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Sept after 40.3 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Sept after 40.0 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Sept after 40.0 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Sept after 40.5 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
14 Sept after 39.0 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
15 Sept after 36.6 °C 26 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Sept after 39.0 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Sept after 38.7 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Sept after 38.7 °C 21 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Sept after 39.2 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Sept after 33.2 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Sept after 33.6 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Sept after 32.2 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Sept after 35.4 °C 35 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Aug 2020
After · 14 Sept 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 · 262Every 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 2020 and 7 September 2020: 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 7,363 hectares (73.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cuiabá (4,073 ha, 1.2 %); Santo Antônio do Leverger (3,323 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.5 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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

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.