How long did the Cuiabá fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 September 2024 and 21 September 2024: 9 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 5,487 hectares (54.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cuiabá (5,095 ha, 1.6 %); Chapada dos Guimarães (422 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 40.5 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.

BR · Brazil · 2024-09-13 → 2024-09-21

Cuiabá fire, 13 September 2024 Cuiabá, Chapada dos Guimarães

Out · last detection 21 Sept 2024, 05:19 UTC

The fire started on 13 September 2024 in Cuiabá, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,487 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 973th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 613 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Burnt area: 5,487ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 9days; 13 Sept 2024 – 21 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 13 Sept; 2024
Heat detections: 156; in a single hotspot: 67 MW
Danger at start: 56; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 1.4GW; sum of detected power

Play back 21 Sept 2024

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Sept21 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

131415161718192021

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

43km/h · peak gust

13%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 404 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

Cuiabá where it started

5,095 ha reached on 13 Sept

1.6 %
Chapada dos Guimarães 18,990 inhabitants

422 ha reached on 13 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)
13 Sept	39.0 °C	13 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
14 Sept	38.6 °C	18 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
15 Sept	33.7 °C	38 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
16 Sept	31.8 °C	45 %	41 km/h	0.1 mm	High 35
17 Sept	36.5 °C	30 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
18 Sept	40.5 °C	18 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
19 Sept	37.6 °C	31 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
20 Sept	38.3 °C	26 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
21 Sept	39.1 °C	19 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
22 Sept after	39.6 °C	19 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
23 Sept after	39.7 °C	19 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
24 Sept after	39.5 °C	21 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
25 Sept after	39.4 °C	25 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
26 Sept after	39.5 °C	27 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
27 Sept after	29.3 °C	53 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
28 Sept after	35.2 °C	34 %	24 km/h	0.1 mm	High 30
29 Sept after	38.5 °C	23 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
30 Sept after	35.9 °C	33 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
1 Oct after	38.7 °C	25 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 6 Sept 2024

After · 28 Sept 2024

Before After

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 guideline14 days

PM10204 µg/m³

Optical depth2.88

WHO 15

1112131415161718192021222324

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 · 156Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cuiabá fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 September 2024 and 21 September 2024: 9 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 5,487 hectares (54.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cuiabá (5,095 ha, 1.6 %); Chapada dos Guimarães (422 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 40.5 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned