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Cujubim fire, 17 August 2022 Porto Velho, Cujubim, Machadinho D'Oeste

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2022, 17:42 UTC

The fire started on 17 August 2022 in Cujubim, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 37 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,173 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 21th largest in Rondônia since 2016 (of 300 with a page). Number 48 in Brazil in 2022, of 687.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Porto Velho · 2021Porto Velho · 2024Cujubim · 2022Cujubim · 2025

Burnt area
16,173ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
37days
17 Aug 2022 – 22 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
17 Aug
2022
Heat detections
2,903
in a single hotspot: 656 MW
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
1.1GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Aug22 Sept
22 Sept 2022

How it evolved, day by day

17 Aug 2022 · 979 MW · 33 18 Aug 2022 · 16 MW · 3 21 Aug 2022 · 14 MW · 4 22 Aug 2022 · 103 MW · 6 23 Aug 2022 · 59 MW · 8 24 Aug 2022 · 424 MW · 21 25 Aug 2022 · 1,935 MW · 97 26 Aug 2022 · 366 MW · 68 27 Aug 2022 · 88 MW · 44 28 Aug 2022 · 27 MW · 4 29 Aug 2022 · 1,755 MW · 101 30 Aug 2022 · 4,788 MW · 278 31 Aug 2022 · 2,632 MW · 280 1 Sept 2022 · 1,228 MW · 145 2 Sept 2022 · 897 MW · 103 3 Sept 2022 · 8 MW · 7 4 Sept 2022 · 1,193 MW · 59 5 Sept 2022 · 1,402 MW · 152 6 Sept 2022 · 3,529 MW · 206 7 Sept 2022 · 4,764 MW · 114 8 Sept 2022 · 1,431 MW · 132 9 Sept 2022 · 2,401 MW · 155 10 Sept 2022 · 916 MW · 205 11 Sept 2022 · 549 MW · 117 12 Sept 2022 · 58 MW · 31 13 Sept 2022 · 5 MW · 1 14 Sept 2022 · 36 MW · 5 15 Sept 2022 · 494 MW · 81 16 Sept 2022 · 1,875 MW · 90 17 Sept 2022 · 232 MW · 53 20 Sept 2022 · 631 MW · 66 21 Sept 2022 · 1,829 MW · 150 22 Sept 2022 · 350 MW · 84
17 Aug 24 Aug 29 Aug 30 Aug 3 Sept 8 Sept 13 Sept 20 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
51km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 27 Sept.

This area had burned before

26% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 439 ha in 2018, 64 ha in 2019, 2,227 ha in 2020, 3,424 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,215 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 10% of the area of London (162 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Porto Velho 460,434 inhabitants
    12,355 ha reached on 17 Aug
    0.4 %
  2. Cujubim 14,863 inhabitants where it started
    3,773 ha reached on 17 Aug
    1.0 %
  3. Machadinho D'Oeste 30,707 inhabitants
    135 ha reached on 21 Sept
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
17 Aug 34.1 °C 46 % 34 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 17
18 Aug 33.7 °C 44 % 22 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 20
19 Aug 25.5 °C 61 % 51 km/h 4.7 mm Very low 4
20 Aug 28.3 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
21 Aug 31.6 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
22 Aug 33.7 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
23 Aug 35.3 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Aug 35.3 °C 26 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Aug 34.1 °C 39 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
26 Aug 34.4 °C 41 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
27 Aug 34.5 °C 41 % 21 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
28 Aug 33.9 °C 55 % 21 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 20
29 Aug 33.2 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
30 Aug 34.1 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
31 Aug 35.0 °C 34 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
1 Sept 35.3 °C 34 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
2 Sept 34.6 °C 41 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
3 Sept 35.3 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Sept 34.3 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Sept 34.9 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
6 Sept 34.4 °C 32 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Sept 34.7 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
8 Sept 34.7 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
9 Sept 35.6 °C 41 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Sept 34.1 °C 46 % 18 km/h 0.5 mm High 25
11 Sept 32.9 °C 50 % 21 km/h 0.4 mm High 23
12 Sept 33.8 °C 49 % 24 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 19
13 Sept 34.4 °C 45 % 27 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 15
14 Sept 33.9 °C 46 % 21 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 19
15 Sept 32.5 °C 46 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
16 Sept 35.0 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Sept 35.1 °C 40 % 17 km/h 0.4 mm High 26
18 Sept 31.9 °C 53 % 30 km/h 2.5 mm Low 9
19 Sept 34.0 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 20
20 Sept 36.4 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
21 Sept 36.5 °C 36 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
22 Sept 32.7 °C 51 % 31 km/h 7.6 mm Very low 5
23 Sept after 31.2 °C 52 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm Low 10
24 Sept after 34.0 °C 47 % 23 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 15
25 Sept after 35.3 °C 37 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
26 Sept after 36.4 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.4 mm High 25
27 Sept after 34.7 °C 43 % 31 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 17

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Aug 2022
After · 29 Sept 2022

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 6 September 2022 the air beside the fire reached 1,080 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 636: 42 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak1,080 µg/m³
Days over the guideline35 days
PM101,546 µg/m³
Optical depth4.20
2223242526272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122232425
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 · 2,903Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 17 August 2022 to 22 September 2022 (37 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 August 2022 to 22 September 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 16,173 hectares (161.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Porto Velho (12,355 ha, 0.4 %); Cujubim (3,773 ha, 1.0 %); Machadinho D'Oeste (135 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 24 August 2022 → 17 August 2022.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 24 August 2022 to 22 September 2022. 2,903 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.