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Jacareacanga fire, 21 July 2024 Jacareacanga

Out · last detection 21 Aug 2024, 04:58 UTC

The fire started on 21 July 2024 in Jacareacanga, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 32 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,324 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 811th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 957 with a page). Number 1142 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Burnt area
3,324ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
32days
21 Jul 2024 – 21 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
21 Jul
2024
Heat detections
502
in a single hotspot: 250 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Average daily power
218MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Jul21 Aug
21 Aug 2024

How it evolved, day by day

21 Jul 2024 · 5 MW · 1 22 Jul 2024 · 55 MW · 7 23 Jul 2024 · 2 MW · 2 24 Jul 2024 · 56 MW · 10 25 Jul 2024 · 98 MW · 10 26 Jul 2024 · 19 MW · 11 27 Jul 2024 · 55 MW · 12 28 Jul 2024 · 138 MW · 9 29 Jul 2024 · 713 MW · 24 30 Jul 2024 · 172 MW · 32 31 Jul 2024 · 121 MW · 20 1 Aug 2024 · 271 MW · 13 2 Aug 2024 · 55 MW · 6 4 Aug 2024 · 109 MW · 19 5 Aug 2024 · 155 MW · 15 6 Aug 2024 · 1,190 MW · 50 7 Aug 2024 · 290 MW · 62 8 Aug 2024 · 202 MW · 21 9 Aug 2024 · 1,728 MW · 32 10 Aug 2024 · 173 MW · 39 11 Aug 2024 · 299 MW · 40 12 Aug 2024 · 397 MW · 29 13 Aug 2024 · 95 MW · 10 14 Aug 2024 · 70 MW · 14 16 Aug 2024 · 8 MW · 1 17 Aug 2024 · 9 MW · 2 18 Aug 2024 · 33 MW · 3 19 Aug 2024 · 4 MW · 1 20 Aug 2024 · 13 MW · 3 21 Aug 2024 · 13 MW · 4
21 Jul 27 Jul 2 Aug 9 Aug 16 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

37°high
30km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,270 ha in 2019, 1,372 ha in 2021, 1,309 ha in 2022, 1,259 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,934 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.1% of the area of London (33 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. Jacareacanga 24,042 inhabitants where it started
    3,337 ha reached on 21 Jul
    0.1 %

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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
21 Jul 35.2 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Jul 34.1 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Jul 33.8 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Jul 33.6 °C 36 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Jul 34.9 °C 34 % 13 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
26 Jul 33.2 °C 39 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Jul 33.7 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Jul 33.5 °C 42 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Jul 34.6 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Jul 35.0 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Jul 34.2 °C 35 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Aug 35.4 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Aug 32.9 °C 43 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Aug 33.1 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Aug 34.7 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Aug 34.1 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Aug 34.7 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Aug 34.5 °C 38 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Aug 35.1 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Aug 36.6 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Aug 36.2 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Aug 33.7 °C 35 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
12 Aug 33.6 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Aug 32.8 °C 43 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
14 Aug 33.2 °C 49 % 28 km/h 2.4 mm High 27
15 Aug 32.9 °C 52 % 29 km/h 2.1 mm Low 11
16 Aug 34.4 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm Low 10
17 Aug 33.5 °C 43 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
18 Aug 34.5 °C 42 % 23 km/h 0.4 mm High 24
19 Aug 34.0 °C 45 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm High 23
20 Aug 35.1 °C 40 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 Aug 34.1 °C 41 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Aug after 36.5 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Aug after 34.5 °C 46 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Aug after 33.4 °C 44 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
25 Aug after 35.5 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Aug after 32.1 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Aug after 34.9 °C 32 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Aug after 33.4 °C 42 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Aug after 33.3 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.3 mm High 22
30 Aug after 34.8 °C 33 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
31 Aug after 35.1 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 35.0, a minimum humidity of 32% and 10 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 27.

FWI at the start 35.0
Minimum humidity 32 %
Days without rain 10
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Trairão fire, August 2017
3,279 ha 15 days FWI 32.6 Min. humidity 32 % 245 km away, in 2017

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

15 days
median duration
3,797 ha
median area
4 %
went past 10,000 ha
2.3 mm
rain at the end (median; 23 of 27 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (3,324 ha against a median of 3,797 ha) and lasted 32 days, against 15 days.

In 4 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 2.3 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
30km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 21 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 23 of 27, with a median of 2.3 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 · 28 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 17 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 124 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 72: 4.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak124 µg/m³
Days over the guideline22 days
PM10177 µg/m³
Optical depth2.15
25 Jul30 Jul4 Aug9 Aug14 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 · 502Every 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 Jacareacanga fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 21 July 2024 to 21 August 2024 (32 days). The perimeter dates it from 27 July 2024 to 14 August 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,324 hectares (33.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Jacareacanga (3,337 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.
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 3,797 ha; 4 % went past 10,000 ha. In 4 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 2.3 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 14 August 2024 → 21 August 2024.
  2. Start date: 27 July 2024 → 21 July 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 27 July 2024 to 14 August 2024. 502 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.