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Cuiabá fire, 11 September 2024 Cuiabá, Santo Antônio do Leverger

Out · last detection 24 Sept 2024, 16:54 UTC

The fire started on 11 September 2024 in Cuiabá, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,416 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 670th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 444 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Burnt area
7,416ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
11 Sept 2024 – 24 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
11 Sept
2024
Heat detections
270
in a single hotspot: 298 MW
Danger at start
67
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
6.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Sept 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Sept24 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1112131415161718192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
49km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,906 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuiabá where it started
    4,617 ha reached on 11 Sept
    1.4 %
  2. Santo Antônio do Leverger 650,877 inhabitants
    2,836 ha reached on 14 Sept
    0.3 %

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)
11 Sept 39.4 °C 15 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
12 Sept 39.2 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
13 Sept 40.3 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Sept 39.1 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
15 Sept 33.5 °C 42 % 29 km/h 0.3 mm High 38
16 Sept 31.3 °C 47 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Sept 36.1 °C 35 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Sept 41.0 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Sept 38.5 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Sept 39.0 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Sept 38.9 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Sept 40.3 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Sept 40.4 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Sept 40.3 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Sept after 40.1 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Sept after 40.4 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
27 Sept after 30.1 °C 50 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Sept after 35.9 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
29 Sept after 40.0 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Sept after 37.8 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Oct after 39.9 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Oct after 38.1 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Oct after 36.5 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
4 Oct after 38.1 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Sept 2024
After · 1 Oct 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 140 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 92: 6.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak140 µg/m³
Days over the guideline23 days
PM10201 µg/m³
Optical depth4.38
56789101112131415161718192021222324252627
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 · 270Every 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 11 September 2024 and 24 September 2024: 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 7,416 hectares (74.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cuiabá (4,617 ha, 1.4 %); Santo Antônio do Leverger (2,836 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.0 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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.