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Cuiabá fire, 22 August 2021 Cuiabá, Acorizal

Out · last detection 4 Sept 2021, 17:20 UTC

The fire started on 22 August 2021 in Cuiabá, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,447 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 1689th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 674 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.7 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
3,447ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
22 Aug 2021 – 4 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
22 Aug
2021
Heat detections
101
in a single hotspot: 15 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
519MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Aug4 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

222425262829311234

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
45km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 9 Sept.

This area had burned before

56% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 16 ha in 2016, 1,940 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuiabá where it started
    3,463 ha reached on 22 Aug
    1.0 %
  2. Acorizal 5,014 inhabitants
    0 ha
    0.0 %

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)
22 Aug 35.7 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
23 Aug 36.5 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Aug 36.7 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Aug 37.1 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Aug 31.2 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Aug 33.2 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Aug 34.8 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Aug 32.1 °C 38 % 39 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 39
30 Aug 34.3 °C 30 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
31 Aug 36.1 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Sept 36.5 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Sept 35.7 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Sept 30.5 °C 45 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
4 Sept 36.0 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Sept after 37.8 °C 23 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Sept after 37.2 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Sept after 37.6 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Sept after 37.6 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 39
9 Sept after 28.5 °C 56 % 37 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Aug 2021
After · 11 Sept 2021

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 · 101Every 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 22 August 2021 and 4 September 2021: 14 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 3,447 hectares (34.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cuiabá (3,463 ha, 1.0 %); Acorizal (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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
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.