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BR · Brazil · –

Itanhangá fire, August 2024 Itanhangá

Out · last detection 10 Sept 2024, 17:58 UTC

The fire started on 21 August 2024 in Itanhangá, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,179 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 669th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1872 with a page). Number 457 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Burnt area
7,179ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
21 Aug 2024 – 10 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
21 Aug
2024
Heat detections
268
in a single hotspot: 277 MW
Danger at start
57
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
134MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Aug10 Sept
10 Sept 2024

How it evolved, day by day

21 Aug 2024 · 24 MW · 2 22 Aug 2024 · 624 MW · 20 23 Aug 2024 · 33 MW · 7 25 Aug 2024 · 9 MW · 8 26 Aug 2024 · 36 MW · 21 27 Aug 2024 · 263 MW · 21 28 Aug 2024 · 130 MW · 10 29 Aug 2024 · 24 MW · 8 30 Aug 2024 · 13 MW · 3 31 Aug 2024 · 78 MW · 27 1 Sept 2024 · 145 MW · 22 2 Sept 2024 · 65 MW · 16 3 Sept 2024 · 69 MW · 6 5 Sept 2024 · 78 MW · 12 6 Sept 2024 · 112 MW · 43 7 Sept 2024 · 785 MW · 19 8 Sept 2024 · 4 MW · 2 9 Sept 2024 · 16 MW · 5 10 Sept 2024 · 37 MW · 16
21 Aug 26 Aug 30 Aug 3 Sept 7 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
44km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

6% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 216 ha in 2017, 101 ha in 2019, 129 ha in 2020.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 4.5% of the area of London (72 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
    7,221 ha reached on 21 Aug
    2.5 %

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 area0.34 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.34 hectares of 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 Extreme FWI: 46 % of the area in Brazil 60 days without rain: 55 % of the area in Brazil

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
21 Aug 37.3 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
22 Aug 37.8 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
23 Aug 38.3 °C 18 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Aug 37.2 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
25 Aug 29.5 °C 39 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Aug 31.0 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
27 Aug 35.8 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Aug 38.2 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
29 Aug 37.8 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
30 Aug 36.5 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
31 Aug 37.5 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
1 Sept 38.2 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
2 Sept 37.7 °C 14 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
3 Sept 37.2 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
4 Sept 38.2 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
5 Sept 39.2 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
6 Sept 37.9 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
7 Sept 37.8 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
8 Sept 38.0 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
9 Sept 38.5 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
10 Sept 37.8 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
11 Sept after 36.5 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
12 Sept after 37.9 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
13 Sept after 38.2 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
14 Sept after 37.3 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Sept after 36.0 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 Sept after 34.3 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Sept after 38.1 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Sept after 38.0 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Sept after 36.0 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Sept after 37.5 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 56.9, a minimum humidity of 16% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 27.

FWI at the start 56.9
Minimum humidity 16 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Alta Floresta fire, September 2020
7,205 ha 11 days FWI 57.0 Min. humidity 16 % 186 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.4 mm on 20 Sept.

What happened to them

15 days
median duration
5,719 ha
median area
33 %
went past 10,000 ha
2.8 mm
rain at the end (median; 19 of 27 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (7,179 ha against a median of 5,719 ha) and lasted 21 days, against 15 days.

In 8 of 27, 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 2.8 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
44km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 10 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 19 of 27, with a median of 2.8 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 Aug 2024
After · 17 Sept 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 9 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 266 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 172: 11 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak266 µg/m³
Days over the guideline24 days
PM10380 µg/m³
Optical depth3.29
19 Aug25 Aug31 Aug6 Sept12 Sept
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 · 268Every 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?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 August 2024 and 10 September 2024: 21 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 7,179 hectares (71.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Itanhangá (7,221 ha, 2.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 70, 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: 27. Their median duration was 15 days and their median area 5,719 ha; 33 % went past 10,000 ha. In 8 of 27, 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 2.8 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 268 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.