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Cuiabá fire, 26 August 2024 Cuiabá, Acorizal, Chapada dos Guimarães

Out · last detection 18 Sept 2024, 17:07 UTC

The fire started on 26 August 2024 in Cuiabá, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 30,271 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 102th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 93 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Burnt area
30,271ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
24days
26 Aug 2024 – 18 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
26 Aug
2024
Heat detections
1,300
in a single hotspot: 153 MW
Danger at start
57
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
10.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Sept 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Aug18 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

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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
58km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 25 Sept.

This area had burned before

66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,166 ha in 2016, 109 ha in 2017, 1,024 ha in 2018, 11,131 ha in 2019, 6,256 ha in 2020, 6,273 ha in 2021, 625 ha in 2022, 1,586 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 19,876 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuiabá where it started
    25,841 ha reached on 26 Aug
    7.9 %
  2. Acorizal 5,014 inhabitants
    4,102 ha reached on 27 Aug
    4.0 %
  3. Chapada dos Guimarães 18,990 inhabitants
    475 ha reached on 4 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)
21 Aug 35.5 °C 16 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
22 Aug 36.6 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Aug 36.8 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Aug 30.1 °C 39 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Aug 21.7 °C 47 % 58 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 38
26 Aug 25.6 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Aug 33.9 °C 19 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
28 Aug 35.9 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Aug 35.8 °C 19 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
30 Aug 34.4 °C 22 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
31 Aug 35.5 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
1 Sept 35.0 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Sept 35.6 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Sept 37.1 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Sept 36.8 °C 14 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
5 Sept 32.7 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Sept 36.3 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Sept 37.0 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Sept 37.2 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
9 Sept 36.6 °C 12 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
10 Sept 36.6 °C 15 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
11 Sept 36.6 °C 16 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
12 Sept 36.6 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
13 Sept 37.9 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Sept 37.7 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
15 Sept 33.6 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
16 Sept 31.9 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Sept 36.4 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Sept 37.8 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
19 Sept after 36.6 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 52
20 Sept after 36.4 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Sept after 38.0 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Sept after 37.6 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Sept after 38.0 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Sept after 38.4 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Sept after 37.9 °C 22 % 57 km/h 1.4 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Aug 2024
After · 25 Sept 2024

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 19 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 141 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 101: 6.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak141 µg/m³
Days over the guideline35 days
PM10204 µg/m³
Optical depth4.00
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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 · 1,300Every 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 2024 and 18 September 2024: 24 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 30,271 hectares (302.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Cuiabá (25,841 ha, 7.9 %); Acorizal (4,102 ha, 4.0 %); Chapada dos Guimarães (475 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, 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.