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Jaú fire, September 2020 Jaú, Dourado, Dois Córregos

Out · last detection 7 Oct 2020, 17:43 UTC

The fire started on 29 September 2020 in Jaú, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,715 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 38th largest in São Paulo since 2016 (of 97 with a page). Number 535 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area
4,715ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
29 Sept 2020 – 6 Oct 2020
Municipalities hit
4
municipalities
Started on
29 Sept
2020
Heat detections
218
in a single hotspot: 110 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Oct 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Sept6 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2930123467

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
60km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.1 mm on 9 Oct.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Jaú 133,497 inhabitants where it started
    2,305 ha reached on 29 Sept
    3.3 %
  2. Dourado 8,096 inhabitants
    1,625 ha reached on 30 Sept
    7.9 %
  3. Dois Córregos 24,510 inhabitants
    666 ha reached on 2 Oct
    1.0 %
  4. Bocaina 11,259 inhabitants
    138 ha
    0.4 %

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)
29 Sept 36.7 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 42
30 Sept 40.0 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Oct 39.7 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Oct 40.4 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Oct 38.5 °C 22 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
4 Oct 35.3 °C 34 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Oct 39.6 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Oct 40.0 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Oct after 40.8 °C 15 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
8 Oct after 32.8 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Oct after 33.4 °C 44 % 50 km/h 4.1 mm Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Sept 2020
After · 13 Oct 2020

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 · 218Every 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 Jaú fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 September 2020 and 6 October 2020: 8 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 4,715 hectares (47.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Jaú (2,305 ha, 3.3 %); Dourado (1,625 ha, 7.9 %); Dois Córregos (666 ha, 1.0 %); Bocaina (138 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.8 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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
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.

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.