Guiratinga fire, September 2020 Guiratinga, Pedra Preta
The fire started on 26 September 2020 in Guiratinga, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,092 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 272th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 109 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.
- Burnt area
- 15,092ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 26 Sept 2020 – 11 Oct 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 26 Sept
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 620
- in a single hotspot: 90 MW
- Danger at start
- 52
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.5GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
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 15 Oct.
This area had burned before
74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11,222 ha in 2017, 28 ha in 2019.
What happened to each town
-
15,170 ha reached on 19 Sept3.0 %
-
Pedra Preta 18,066 inhabitants16 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Sept | 38.5 °C | 17 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 20 Sept | 34.6 °C | 33 % | 29 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 41 |
| 21 Sept | 34.0 °C | 32 % | 28 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 36 |
| 22 Sept | 31.4 °C | 41 % | 29 km/h | 3.1 mm | Low 10 |
| 23 Sept | 33.3 °C | 42 % | 26 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 24 Sept | 36.6 °C | 24 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 25 Sept | 38.3 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 26 Sept | 36.8 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 27 Sept | 38.2 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 28 Sept | 39.1 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 29 Sept | 40.6 °C | 10 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 30 Sept | 41.2 °C | 8 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 1 Oct | 40.6 °C | 13 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 2 Oct | 39.6 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 3 Oct | 40.1 °C | 17 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 4 Oct | 41.1 °C | 5 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 5 Oct | 41.1 °C | 12 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 6 Oct | 40.4 °C | 17 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 7 Oct | 40.4 °C | 19 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 8 Oct | 40.9 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 9 Oct | 40.6 °C | 17 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 10 Oct | 38.8 °C | 22 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 11 Oct | 33.5 °C | 39 % | 28 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 34 |
| 12 Oct after | 35.3 °C | 29 % | 26 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 31 |
| 13 Oct after | 36.9 °C | 26 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 14 Oct after | 37.8 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 15 Oct after | 34.9 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 1.2 mm | High 30 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 620Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Guiratinga fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 September 2020 and 11 October 2020: 16 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 15,092 hectares (150.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Guiratinga (15,170 ha, 3.0 %); Pedra Preta (16 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.2 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 46 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.
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
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.