Cujubim fire, 30 July 2019 Cujubim, Machadinho D'Oeste
The fire started on 30 July 2019 in Cujubim, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,795 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 23th largest in Rondônia since 2016 (of 300 with a page). Number 81 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.
- Burnt area
- 15,795ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 20days
- 30 Jul 2019 – 18 Aug 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 30 Jul
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 1,594
- in a single hotspot: 359 MW
- Danger at start
- 39
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 17.8GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 25 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.4 mm on 26 Aug.
This area had burned before
87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11,400 ha in 2016, 10,730 ha in 2017, 12,698 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 13,668 ha that had burned before.
- 5,288 ha Cujubim fire, September 2018 6,678 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,023 ha Cujubim fire, August 2016 3,348 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,945 ha Cujubim fire, August 2017 3,648 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,791 ha Cujubim fire, September 2016 6,177 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 210 ha Machadinho D'Oeste fire, July 2017 3,149 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
15,736 ha reached on 30 Jul4.0 %
-
Machadinho D'Oeste 30,707 inhabitants161 ha reached on 16 Aug0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Jul | 35.8 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 31 Jul | 36.8 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 1 Aug | 37.3 °C | 20 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 2 Aug | 37.2 °C | 21 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 3 Aug | 29.2 °C | 29 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 4 Aug | 30.4 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 5 Aug | 32.8 °C | 24 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 6 Aug | 34.9 °C | 28 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 7 Aug | 35.9 °C | 30 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 8 Aug | 34.9 °C | 34 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 9 Aug | 35.8 °C | 27 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 10 Aug | 37.7 °C | 21 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 11 Aug | 37.4 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 12 Aug | 37.4 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Aug | 37.3 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 14 Aug | 33.6 °C | 27 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Aug | 36.0 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 16 Aug | 35.5 °C | 35 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 17 Aug | 34.8 °C | 40 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 18 Aug | 33.2 °C | 48 % | 22 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 19 Aug after | 34.5 °C | 41 % | 25 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 26 |
| 20 Aug after | 35.8 °C | 34 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 29 |
| 21 Aug after | 36.0 °C | 31 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 22 Aug after | 36.5 °C | 28 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 23 Aug after | 36.9 °C | 30 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 24 Aug after | 35.7 °C | 36 % | 25 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 34 |
| 25 Aug after | 32.9 °C | 48 % | 30 km/h | 6.3 mm | Low 6 |
| 26 Aug after | 34.1 °C | 47 % | 30 km/h | 4.4 mm | Very low 5 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 1,594Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,678 haCujubimSeptember 2018 · 13 days · 1 km away
- 7,555 haCujubim12 August 2021 · 17 days · 5 km away
- 6,459 haMachadinho D'OesteAugust 2019 · 13 days · 19 km away
- 13,588 haMachadinho D'OesteAugust 2017 · 20 days · 23 km away
- 9,081 haMachadinho D'Oeste2 September 2018 · 14 days · 23 km away
- 16,758 haCujubim29 July 2019 · 27 days · 28 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cujubim fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 July 2019 and 18 August 2019: 20 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 15,795 hectares (158.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cujubim (15,736 ha, 4.0 %); Machadinho D'Oeste (161 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.
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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.