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Itanhangá fire, July 2024 Itanhangá

Out · last detection 5 Aug 2024, 04:59 UTC

The fire started on 21 July 2024 in Itanhangá, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,357 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1208th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1872 with a page). Number 820 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Burnt area
4,357ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
21 Jul 2024 – 5 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
21 Jul
2024
Heat detections
345
in a single hotspot: 333 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
828MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Jul5 Aug
5 Aug 2024

How it evolved, day by day

21 Jul 2024 · 31 MW · 4 22 Jul 2024 · 250 MW · 22 23 Jul 2024 · 6,440 MW · 87 24 Jul 2024 · 1,388 MW · 30 25 Jul 2024 · 344 MW · 61 26 Jul 2024 · 1,705 MW · 35 27 Jul 2024 · 613 MW · 51 28 Jul 2024 · 626 MW · 20 29 Jul 2024 · 27 MW · 10 30 Jul 2024 · 73 MW · 13 31 Jul 2024 · 85 MW · 8 1 Aug 2024 · 4 MW · 1 4 Aug 2024 · 5 MW · 2 5 Aug 2024 · 1 MW · 1
23 Jul 27 Jul 30 Jul 4 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
41km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 48 ha in 2019, 3,900 ha in 2020, 466 ha in 2021, 492 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,996 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.8% of the area of London (44 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. Itanhangá 7,539 inhabitants where it started
    4,382 ha reached on 21 Jul
    1.5 %

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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 55 % of the area in Brazil

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
21 Jul 33.9 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Jul 33.1 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Jul 33.1 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Jul 34.5 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Jul 35.3 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Jul 35.3 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
27 Jul 34.0 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
28 Jul 34.6 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 Jul 35.1 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Jul 35.5 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 Jul 36.4 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
1 Aug 36.1 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
2 Aug 35.8 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
3 Aug 35.6 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
4 Aug 34.9 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
5 Aug 34.0 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
6 Aug after 33.9 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
7 Aug after 34.5 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Aug after 35.8 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Aug after 31.2 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Aug after 28.3 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Aug after 33.8 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Aug after 33.5 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Aug after 35.3 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Aug after 37.1 °C 14 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Aug after 37.1 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 48.6, a minimum humidity of 19% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 41.

FWI at the start 48.6
Minimum humidity 19 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Juara fire, August 2021
12,910 ha 17 days FWI 48.9 Min. humidity 21 % 137 km away, in 2021

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.4 mm on 7 Sept.

What happened to them

19 days
median duration
5,967 ha
median area
24 %
went past 10,000 ha
3.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 25 of 41 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (4,357 ha against a median of 5,967 ha) and lasted 16 days, against 19 days.

In 16 of 41, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.6 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
41km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 5 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 25 of 41, with a median of 3.6 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Jul 2024
After · 12 Aug 2024

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 24 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 63 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak63 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1089 µg/m³
Optical depth0.36
19 Jul23 Jul27 Jul31 Jul4 Aug
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 345Every 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 Itanhangá fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 21 July 2024 to 5 August 2024 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 July 2024 to 1 August 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,357 hectares (43.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Itanhangá (4,382 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 41. Their median duration was 19 days and their median area 5,967 ha; 24 % went past 10,000 ha. In 16 of 41, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.6 mm.

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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 1 August 2024 → 5 August 2024.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 21 July 2024 to 1 August 2024. 345 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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

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.