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Cujubim fire, August 2016 Cujubim

Out · last detection 31 Aug 2016, 17:35 UTC

The fire started on 21 August 2016 in Cujubim, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,348 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 252th largest in Rondônia since 2016 (of 300 with a page). Number 540 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

Burnt area
3,348ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
21 Aug 2016 – 30 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
21 Aug
2016
Heat detections
251
in a single hotspot: 117 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Aug30 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

21222324252627283031

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
44km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 58 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 13 Sept.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Cujubim 14,863 inhabitants where it started
    3,370 ha reached on 14 Aug
    0.9 %

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)
14 Aug 36.9 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
15 Aug 36.5 °C 38 % 30 km/h 1.4 mm High 22
16 Aug 35.4 °C 42 % 26 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 20
17 Aug 34.2 °C 49 % 29 km/h 4.7 mm Low 6
18 Aug 37.1 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.5 mm High 22
19 Aug 36.1 °C 40 % 27 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 18
20 Aug 33.4 °C 52 % 32 km/h 4.5 mm Very low 5
21 Aug 29.4 °C 57 % 44 km/h 13.5 mm Very low 2
22 Aug 29.5 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
23 Aug 34.0 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
24 Aug 35.7 °C 35 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
25 Aug 35.5 °C 37 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
26 Aug 35.1 °C 40 % 34 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 14
27 Aug 33.2 °C 49 % 30 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 12
28 Aug 30.6 °C 68 % 29 km/h 11.0 mm Very low 1
29 Aug 33.3 °C 53 % 32 km/h 1.8 mm Very low 3
30 Aug 27.9 °C 71 % 30 km/h 14.4 mm Very low 0
31 Aug after 30.1 °C 64 % 27 km/h 1.1 mm Very low 1
1 Sept after 29.6 °C 62 % 19 km/h 2.1 mm Very low 1
2 Sept after 30.0 °C 69 % 20 km/h 21.6 mm Very low 0
3 Sept after 32.9 °C 52 % 26 km/h 0.4 mm Very low 1
4 Sept after 27.9 °C 53 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Low 5
5 Sept after 29.7 °C 52 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
6 Sept after 28.8 °C 53 % 34 km/h 0.8 mm Low 6
7 Sept after 33.0 °C 42 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
8 Sept after 32.9 °C 45 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
9 Sept after 36.2 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
10 Sept after 37.0 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 16
11 Sept after 36.3 °C 38 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 17
12 Sept after 34.5 °C 49 % 35 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 16
13 Sept after 34.0 °C 46 % 39 km/h 1.8 mm Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Aug 2016
After · 6 Sept 2016

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 · 251Every 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 Cujubim fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 August 2016 and 30 August 2016: 10 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 3,348 hectares (33.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cujubim (3,370 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class 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.