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Gaúcha do Norte fire, 24 July 2016 Gaúcha do Norte, Canarana

Out · last detection 29 Aug 2016, 16:30 UTC

The fire started on 24 July 2016 in Gaúcha do Norte, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 37 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 26,042 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 132th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 15 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Gaúcha do Norte · 2020Gaúcha do Norte · 2025Canarana · 2019Gaúcha do Norte · 2022

Burnt area
26,042ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
37days
24 Jul 2016 – 29 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
24 Jul
2016
Heat detections
1,570
in a single hotspot: 192 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Average daily power
360MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jul29 Aug
29 Aug 2016

How it evolved, day by day

24 Jul 2016 · 787 MW · 40 25 Jul 2016 · 410 MW · 68 26 Jul 2016 · 182 MW · 32 27 Jul 2016 · 66 MW · 3 28 Jul 2016 · 173 MW · 11 29 Jul 2016 · 1,740 MW · 48 30 Jul 2016 · 659 MW · 109 31 Jul 2016 · 1,303 MW · 125 1 Aug 2016 · 298 MW · 62 2 Aug 2016 · 51 MW · 8 3 Aug 2016 · 117 MW · 7 4 Aug 2016 · 124 MW · 29 5 Aug 2016 · 162 MW · 51 6 Aug 2016 · 470 MW · 67 7 Aug 2016 · 212 MW · 15 8 Aug 2016 · 133 MW · 10 9 Aug 2016 · 150 MW · 26 10 Aug 2016 · 140 MW · 62 11 Aug 2016 · 211 MW · 44 12 Aug 2016 · 505 MW · 38 13 Aug 2016 · 200 MW · 13 14 Aug 2016 · 8 MW · 3 15 Aug 2016 · 131 MW · 36 16 Aug 2016 · 568 MW · 70 17 Aug 2016 · 130 MW · 13 18 Aug 2016 · 4 MW · 2 19 Aug 2016 · 63 MW · 18 20 Aug 2016 · 139 MW · 19 21 Aug 2016 · 1,630 MW · 116 22 Aug 2016 · 803 MW · 116 23 Aug 2016 · 364 MW · 48 24 Aug 2016 · 368 MW · 34 25 Aug 2016 · 86 MW · 42 26 Aug 2016 · 284 MW · 92 27 Aug 2016 · 590 MW · 55 28 Aug 2016 · 57 MW · 8 29 Aug 2016 · 18 MW · 3
24 Jul 29 Jul 30 Jul 5 Aug 11 Aug 17 Aug 23 Aug 29 Aug

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
44km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 1 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 16% of the area of London (260 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. Gaúcha do Norte 8,642 inhabitants where it started
    21,479 ha reached on 18 Jul
    1.3 %
  2. Canarana
    4,714 ha reached on 24 Jul
    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.

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)
18 Jul 32.4 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Jul 33.0 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Jul 32.8 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Jul 33.4 °C 22 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Jul 33.1 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Jul 33.8 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Jul 33.8 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Jul 32.6 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Jul 33.5 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
27 Jul 33.0 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Jul 33.6 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Jul 33.9 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Jul 33.1 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Jul 32.1 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Aug 32.5 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Aug 32.6 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Aug 33.5 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Aug 34.4 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Aug 34.4 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Aug 33.9 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Aug 34.2 °C 19 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Aug 35.2 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Aug 35.7 °C 17 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Aug 34.8 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Aug 35.0 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Aug 34.7 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Aug 36.3 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Aug 34.9 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Aug 34.9 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
16 Aug 36.0 °C 30 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
17 Aug 35.3 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
18 Aug 36.0 °C 29 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Aug 36.0 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Aug 34.9 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Aug 30.8 °C 51 % 44 km/h 4.1 mm Low 10
22 Aug 29.5 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
23 Aug 33.3 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Aug 35.2 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Aug 33.9 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.5 mm High 38
26 Aug 34.8 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
27 Aug 35.9 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Aug 36.3 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Aug 34.9 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Aug after 34.5 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Aug after 31.2 °C 45 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Sept after 35.4 °C 32 % 30 km/h 1.0 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Jul 2016
After · 5 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 · 1,570Every 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 Gaúcha do Norte fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 July 2016 and 29 August 2016: 37 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 26,042 hectares (260.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gaúcha do Norte (21,479 ha, 1.3 %); Canarana (4,714 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 44 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 1,570 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.

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.