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Gaúcha do Norte fire, 21 August 2016 Gaúcha do Norte

Out · last detection 13 Sept 2016, 16:49 UTC

The fire started on 21 August 2016 in Gaúcha do Norte, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 25 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,481 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 286th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 44 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

Burnt area
14,481ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
25days
21 Aug 2016 – 14 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
21 Aug
2016
Heat detections
697
in a single hotspot: 87 MW
Danger at start
16
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
3.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Aug14 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

212223242526272831125678910111213

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
44km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 20 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Gaúcha do Norte 8,642 inhabitants where it started
    14,567 ha reached on 21 Aug
    0.8 %

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)
21 Aug 31.3 °C 55 % 44 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 16
22 Aug 29.7 °C 40 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 Aug 33.6 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Aug 36.3 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Aug 34.0 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
26 Aug 35.4 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
27 Aug 35.7 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Aug 36.3 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Aug 31.9 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
30 Aug 33.7 °C 39 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
31 Aug 30.2 °C 54 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
1 Sept 35.1 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.3 mm High 29
2 Sept 35.5 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Sept 34.1 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Sept 32.2 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Sept 35.8 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Sept 33.9 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Sept 36.2 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
8 Sept 36.4 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Sept 37.8 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Sept 36.9 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Sept 37.4 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Sept 37.7 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Sept 36.5 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Sept 36.1 °C 37 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Sept after 35.9 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
16 Sept after 37.5 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Sept after 36.9 °C 33 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Sept after 35.1 °C 40 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
19 Sept after 34.1 °C 41 % 29 km/h 0.7 mm High 24
20 Sept after 36.4 °C 33 % 25 km/h 1.2 mm High 26

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Aug 2016
After · 21 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 · 697Every 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 21 August 2016 and 14 September 2016: 25 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 14,481 hectares (144.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Gaúcha do Norte (14,567 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.

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.

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.