Cujubim fire, August 2023 Cujubim, Porto Velho
The fire started on 15 August 2023 in Cujubim, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,550 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 104th largest in Rondônia since 2016 (of 300 with a page). Number 142 in Brazil in 2023, of 431.
- Burnt area
- 5,550ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 14days
- 15 Aug 2023 – 28 Aug 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 15 Aug
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 462
- in a single hotspot: 412 MW
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.6GW
- 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 55 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 9 Sept.
This area had burned before
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 282 ha in 2016, 524 ha in 2017, 1,135 ha in 2018, 1,241 ha in 2019, 2,149 ha in 2020, 4,448 ha in 2021, 5,580 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,172 ha that had burned before.
- 2,886 ha Cujubim fire, August 2022 16,173 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,550 ha Porto Velho fire, July 2021 59,677 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 185 ha Cujubim fire, August 2019 4,437 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 152 ha Cujubim fire, August 2022 12,970 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
4,844 ha reached on 8 Aug1.2 %
-
Porto Velho 460,434 inhabitants737 ha reached on 11 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Aug | 35.2 °C | 42 % | 21 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 9 Aug | 35.6 °C | 46 % | 24 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 10 Aug | 35.9 °C | 46 % | 26 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 26 |
| 11 Aug | 33.7 °C | 47 % | 26 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 12 Aug | 34.3 °C | 46 % | 18 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 13 Aug | 26.9 °C | 64 % | 40 km/h | 2.1 mm | Low 7 |
| 14 Aug | 31.9 °C | 53 % | 30 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 15 Aug | 34.0 °C | 39 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 16 Aug | 34.4 °C | 34 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 17 Aug | 35.1 °C | 36 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 18 Aug | 35.1 °C | 38 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 19 Aug | 35.9 °C | 37 % | 20 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 28 |
| 20 Aug | 36.4 °C | 35 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 21 Aug | 37.3 °C | 33 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 22 Aug | 37.5 °C | 30 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 23 Aug | 37.1 °C | 34 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 24 Aug | 34.6 °C | 45 % | 29 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 29 |
| 25 Aug | 34.8 °C | 43 % | 27 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 28 |
| 26 Aug | 36.9 °C | 31 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 27 Aug | 36.4 °C | 40 % | 26 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 26 |
| 28 Aug | 35.0 °C | 42 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 29 Aug after | 36.7 °C | 36 % | 24 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 27 |
| 30 Aug after | 34.7 °C | 45 % | 22 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 28 |
| 31 Aug after | 33.9 °C | 48 % | 26 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 1 Sept after | 35.4 °C | 41 % | 22 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 2 Sept after | 34.8 °C | 45 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 26 |
| 3 Sept after | 36.6 °C | 37 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
| 4 Sept after | 37.2 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 5 Sept after | 37.7 °C | 24 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 6 Sept after | 36.4 °C | 31 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 7 Sept after | 35.6 °C | 41 % | 21 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 31 |
| 8 Sept after | 34.3 °C | 46 % | 23 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 29 |
| 9 Sept after | 34.5 °C | 47 % | 28 km/h | 1.7 mm | Moderate 15 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 24 August 2023 the air beside the fire reached 279 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 129: 8.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 462Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 100,993 haPorto Velho7 July 2024 · 70 days · 7 km away
- 16,173 haCujubim24 August 2022 · 30 days · 9 km away
- 7,795 haCujubimAugust 2025 · 14 days · 11 km away
- 12,970 haCujubim21 August 2022 · 22 days · 12 km away
- 16,758 haCujubim29 July 2019 · 27 days · 13 km away
- 59,677 haPorto VelhoJuly 2021 · 38 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cujubim fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 August 2023 and 28 August 2023: 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 5,550 hectares (55.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cujubim (4,844 ha, 1.2 %); Porto Velho (737 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 40 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
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.