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BR · Brazil · –

Diamantino fire, 2 September 2024 Diamantino, Nova Mutum, São José do Rio Claro

Out · last detection 13 Sept 2024, 17:01 UTC

The fire started on 2 September 2024 in Diamantino, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,308 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 336th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1872 with a page). Number 247 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Burnt area
12,308ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
2 Sept 2024 – 13 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
2 Sept
2024
Heat detections
702
in a single hotspot: 0 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
1.2GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Sept13 Sept
13 Sept 2024

How it evolved, day by day

2 Sept 2024 · 53 MW · 8 3 Sept 2024 · 192 MW · 11 4 Sept 2024 · 801 MW · 15 5 Sept 2024 · 443 MW · 65 6 Sept 2024 · 2,451 MW · 136 7 Sept 2024 · 4,687 MW · 176 8 Sept 2024 · 2,466 MW · 74 9 Sept 2024 · 2,138 MW · 62 10 Sept 2024 · 516 MW · 58 11 Sept 2024 · 242 MW · 56 12 Sept 2024 · 194 MW · 30 13 Sept 2024 · 102 MW · 11
2 Sept 7 Sept 11 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

38°high
45km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

13% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,621 ha in 2020.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 7.8% of the area of London (123 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. Diamantino 21,941 inhabitants where it started
    8,117 ha
    1.0 %
  2. Nova Mutum 55,839 inhabitants
    2,378 ha
    0.2 %
  3. São José do Rio Claro 14,911 inhabitants
    1,884 ha
    0.4 %

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 2025
Built-up area2.6 ha
Residents≈ 30

Inside the perimeter there were about 2.6 hectares of built-up land and about 30 residents (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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)

Started with Very dry air: 6.4 % of the area in Brazil 60 days without rain: 55 % of the area in Brazil

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
2 Sept 37.0 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Sept 37.4 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
4 Sept 37.6 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
5 Sept 34.8 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
6 Sept 37.2 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Sept 38.2 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
8 Sept 38.3 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
9 Sept 38.3 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Sept 37.8 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
11 Sept 36.6 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Sept 37.2 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Sept 37.4 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
14 Sept after 37.0 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Sept after 34.6 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Sept after 32.7 °C 39 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 38
17 Sept after 36.7 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Sept after 38.5 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Sept after 35.7 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Sept after 37.3 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Sept after 39.5 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Sept after 38.3 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
23 Sept after 38.4 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 47.8, a minimum humidity of 12% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 16.

FWI at the start 47.8
Minimum humidity 12 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Rosário Oeste fire, August 2020
128,498 ha 26 days FWI 49.9 Min. humidity 14 % 98 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

16 days
median duration
5,986 ha
median area
25 %
went past 10,000 ha
1.3 mm
rain at the end (median; 11 of 16 had it)

It was 2.1 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 12 days, against 16 days.

Only 4 of its 16 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 5 of 16, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.3 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
45km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 13 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 11 of 16, with a median of 1.3 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Aug 2024
After · 20 Sept 2024

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 15 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 175 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 106: 7.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak175 µg/m³
Days over the guideline16 days
PM10250 µg/m³
Optical depth2.75
31 Aug4 Sept8 Sept12 Sept16 Sept
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 · 0Every 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 Diamantino fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 September 2024 and 13 September 2024: 12 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 12,308 hectares (123.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Diamantino (8,117 ha, 1.0 %); Nova Mutum (2,378 ha, 0.2 %); São José do Rio Claro (1,884 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 16. Their median duration was 16 days and their median area 5,986 ha; 25 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 4 of its 16 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 5 of 16, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.3 mm.

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 · 4 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 19 September 2024 → 13 September 2024.
  2. Start date: 30 August 2024 → 2 September 2024.
  3. Last day with fire: 13 September 2024 → 19 September 2024.
  4. Start date: 2 September 2024 → 30 August 2024.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No 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 2025, 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.