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Jacareacanga fire, 15 August 2026 Jacareacanga

Out · last detection 4 Oct 2026, 17:37 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2026 in Jacareacanga, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 51 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,091 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

Number 88 in Brazil in 2026, of 793.

GWIS near-real-time perimeter, from the layer that changed in October 2025: this fire is not compared with fires from earlier years, because since then the GWIS layer gives more and larger perimeters.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Jacareacanga · 2024Jacareacanga · 2024Jacareacanga · 2022Jacareacanga · 2026

Burnt area
12,091ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
51days
15 Aug 2026 – 4 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
15 Aug
2026
Heat detections
1,156
in a single hotspot: 170 MW
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
225MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug4 Oct
4 Oct 2026

How it evolved, day by day

15 Aug 2026 · 48 MW · 3 16 Aug 2026 · 1,072 MW · 80 17 Aug 2026 · 165 MW · 36 18 Aug 2026 · 484 MW · 51 19 Aug 2026 · 71 MW · 16 20 Aug 2026 · 8 MW · 2 21 Aug 2026 · 282 MW · 33 22 Aug 2026 · 132 MW · 30 23 Aug 2026 · 94 MW · 8 24 Aug 2026 · 323 MW · 10 25 Aug 2026 · 700 MW · 29 26 Aug 2026 · 173 MW · 45 27 Aug 2026 · 773 MW · 30 28 Aug 2026 · 536 MW · 52 29 Aug 2026 · 162 MW · 40 30 Aug 2026 · 165 MW · 31 31 Aug 2026 · 523 MW · 41 1 Sept 2026 · 233 MW · 53 2 Sept 2026 · 343 MW · 55 3 Sept 2026 · 11 MW · 1 4 Sept 2026 · 7 MW · 6 6 Sept 2026 · 150 MW · 32 7 Sept 2026 · 103 MW · 29 10 Sept 2026 · 2 MW · 2 11 Sept 2026 · 69 MW · 15 12 Sept 2026 · 454 MW · 43 13 Sept 2026 · 216 MW · 21 14 Sept 2026 · 905 MW · 46 15 Sept 2026 · 116 MW · 24 16 Sept 2026 · 30 MW · 13 17 Sept 2026 · 165 MW · 17 18 Sept 2026 · 177 MW · 23 19 Sept 2026 · 203 MW · 15 20 Sept 2026 · 154 MW · 25 21 Sept 2026 · 119 MW · 25 22 Sept 2026 · 279 MW · 62 23 Sept 2026 · 237 MW · 42 24 Sept 2026 · 64 MW · 17 26 Sept 2026 · 117 MW · 5 27 Sept 2026 · 21 MW · 13 28 Sept 2026 · 55 MW · 14 29 Sept 2026 · 145 MW · 9 30 Sept 2026 · 0 MW · 0 1 Oct 2026 · 15 MW · 2 2 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 3 Oct 2026 · 17 MW · 7 4 Oct 2026 · 20 MW · 3
16 Aug 25 Aug 4 Sept 17 Sept 28 Sept

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

Fire front film How it spread from one satellite pass to the next (94 passes) and with what wind. Watch the film

The weather it burned in

36°high
39km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 6 Oct.

This area had burned before

70% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,756 ha in 2019, 2,543 ha in 2021, 3,054 ha in 2022, 3,996 ha in 2023, 8,372 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,427 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 7.6% of the area of London (121 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
    12,132 ha reached on 15 Aug
    0.2 %

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)
15 Aug 34.1 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
16 Aug 33.8 °C 43 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
17 Aug 34.3 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
18 Aug 34.3 °C 39 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
19 Aug 34.4 °C 41 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
20 Aug 34.0 °C 43 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
21 Aug 33.8 °C 45 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
22 Aug 32.6 °C 56 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm High 21
23 Aug 32.2 °C 55 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 21
24 Aug 35.0 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
25 Aug 35.5 °C 32 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
26 Aug 33.7 °C 48 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
27 Aug 34.8 °C 44 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
28 Aug 34.4 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
29 Aug 33.6 °C 50 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
30 Aug 33.7 °C 54 % 31 km/h 0.4 mm High 25
31 Aug 34.6 °C 49 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
1 Sept 33.6 °C 55 % 26 km/h 0.3 mm High 24
2 Sept 35.0 °C 44 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
3 Sept 33.8 °C 50 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
4 Sept 33.4 °C 49 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
5 Sept 33.2 °C 50 % 24 km/h 0.1 mm High 23
6 Sept 34.0 °C 43 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
7 Sept 32.9 °C 53 % 29 km/h 1.4 mm High 24
8 Sept 32.3 °C 54 % 22 km/h 0.5 mm Low 9
9 Sept 33.2 °C 54 % 24 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 16
10 Sept 34.2 °C 46 % 33 km/h 3.6 mm High 22
11 Sept 33.4 °C 57 % 35 km/h 2.5 mm Very low 5
12 Sept 33.2 °C 52 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 13
13 Sept 33.6 °C 53 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 13
14 Sept 34.6 °C 48 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
15 Sept 33.4 °C 51 % 23 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 12
16 Sept 33.6 °C 54 % 25 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 15
17 Sept 33.4 °C 59 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 18
18 Sept 35.0 °C 43 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
19 Sept 34.6 °C 40 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
20 Sept 35.1 °C 44 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
21 Sept 35.0 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Sept 35.5 °C 40 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
23 Sept 34.6 °C 43 % 23 km/h 0.3 mm High 23
24 Sept 33.8 °C 55 % 19 km/h 2.8 mm High 23
25 Sept 28.6 °C 75 % 25 km/h 14.6 mm Very low 0
26 Sept 33.6 °C 52 % 26 km/h 1.6 mm Very low 3
27 Sept 33.6 °C 54 % 22 km/h 0.2 mm Low 11
28 Sept 31.2 °C 65 % 28 km/h 5.7 mm Low 8
29 Sept 32.4 °C 60 % 29 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 2
30 Sept 35.1 °C 50 % 24 km/h 0.1 mm Low 11
1 Oct 34.7 °C 46 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
2 Oct 32.7 °C 60 % 18 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 15
3 Oct 34.6 °C 44 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
4 Oct 34.5 °C 47 % 23 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 14
5 Oct after 33.8 °C 54 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 15
6 Oct after 34.7 °C 47 % 38 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 20

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Aug 2026
After · 11 Oct 2026

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 30 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 319 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 161: 11 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak319 µg/m³
Days over the guideline49 days
PM10324 µg/m³
Optical depth1.70
6 Aug18 Aug30 Aug11 Sept23 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 · 1,156Every 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 15 August 2026 to 4 October 2026 (51 days). The perimeter dates it from 15 August 2026 to 3 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 12,091 hectares (120.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Jacareacanga (12,132 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, class 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 · 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.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

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 15 August 2026 to 3 October 2026. 1,156 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.