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Guiratinga fire, 15 September 2017 Guiratinga, Pedra Preta

Out · last detection 24 Sept 2017, 17:39 UTC

The fire started on 15 September 2017 in Guiratinga, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,145 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 842th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 339 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
6,145ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
15 Sept 2017 – 24 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
15 Sept
2017
Heat detections
212
in a single hotspot: 56 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Sept24 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

15161718192021222324

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
39km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 25 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.0 mm on 25 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. Guiratinga 10,966 inhabitants where it started
    6,174 ha reached on 15 Sept
    1.2 %
  2. Pedra Preta 18,066 inhabitants
    8 ha reached on 22 Sept
    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)
15 Sept 37.9 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Sept 34.6 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Sept 33.8 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Sept 36.2 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Sept 37.3 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Sept 37.0 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Sept 35.6 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Sept 34.4 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
23 Sept 35.7 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Sept 37.0 °C 29 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Sept after 37.3 °C 28 % 31 km/h 5.0 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Sept 2017
After · 1 Oct 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 · 212Every 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 15 September 2017 and 24 September 2017: 10 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 6,145 hectares (61.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Guiratinga (6,174 ha, 1.2 %); Pedra Preta (8 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.