Skip to content
worldfires
BR · Brazil · →

Guiratinga fire, 31 August 2017 Guiratinga, Alto Garças

Out · last detection 7 Sept 2017, 16:17 UTC

The fire started on 31 August 2017 in Guiratinga, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,578 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 963th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 401 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
5,578ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
31 Aug 2017 – 7 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
31 Aug
2017
Heat detections
193
in a single hotspot: 74 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Aug7 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

311234567

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
42km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Guiratinga 10,966 inhabitants where it started
    5,579 ha reached on 31 Aug
    1.1 %
  2. Alto Garças 13,052 inhabitants
    34 ha
    0.0 %

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)
31 Aug 36.2 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Sept 36.8 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Sept 35.0 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
3 Sept 33.8 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Sept 33.2 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Sept 33.6 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Sept 33.5 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Sept 34.9 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Sept after 36.2 °C 24 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Sept after 36.3 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Sept after 35.8 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Sept after 36.3 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
12 Sept after 36.4 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Sept after 35.2 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Sept after 35.2 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Sept after 36.0 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Sept after 33.6 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Sept after 32.6 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Sept after 34.9 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Sept after 35.9 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Sept after 35.7 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Aug 2017
After · 14 Sept 2017

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 · 193Every 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 Guiratinga fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 August 2017 and 7 September 2017: 8 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 5,578 hectares (55.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Guiratinga (5,579 ha, 1.1 %); Alto Garças (34 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.

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.