How long did the Luciara fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 August 2017 and 15 September 2017: 17 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 16,753 hectares (167.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Luciara (16,852 ha, 4.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 40.8 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.

BR · Brazil · 2017-08-30 → 2017-09-15

Luciara fire, August 2017 Luciara

Out · last detection 15 Sept 2017, 04:34 UTC

The fire started on 30 August 2017 in Luciara, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,753 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 233th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 85 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area: 16,753ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 17days; 30 Aug 2017 – 15 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 30 Aug; 2017
Heat detections: 653; in a single hotspot: 236 MW
Danger at start: 49; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 10.0GW; sum of detected power

Play back 15 Sept 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Aug15 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

3031123456789101112131415

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

49km/h · peak gust

15%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.9 mm on 30 Sept.

This area had burned before

25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,248 ha in 2016.

3,943 ha Luciara fire, August 2016 8,788 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Luciara 2,509 inhabitants where it started

16,852 ha reached on 28 Aug

4.0 %

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)
28 Aug	39.7 °C	16 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
29 Aug	39.4 °C	17 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
30 Aug	39.4 °C	16 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
31 Aug	39.7 °C	15 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
1 Sept	39.7 °C	15 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
2 Sept	38.1 °C	18 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 61
3 Sept	36.8 °C	20 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
4 Sept	35.6 °C	21 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
5 Sept	37.6 °C	19 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
6 Sept	38.4 °C	21 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
7 Sept	38.8 °C	22 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
8 Sept	38.0 °C	23 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
9 Sept	40.2 °C	18 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
10 Sept	39.7 °C	18 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
11 Sept	40.8 °C	15 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
12 Sept	39.3 °C	21 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 61
13 Sept	38.4 °C	15 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
14 Sept	39.0 °C	18 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
15 Sept	38.8 °C	17 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
16 Sept after	39.2 °C	15 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
17 Sept after	38.2 °C	17 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
18 Sept after	39.2 °C	16 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
19 Sept after	40.1 °C	18 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
20 Sept after	39.4 °C	17 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
21 Sept after	32.9 °C	29 %	34 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 43
22 Sept after	38.1 °C	20 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
23 Sept after	39.4 °C	19 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
24 Sept after	39.6 °C	17 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
25 Sept after	40.0 °C	17 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
26 Sept after	39.3 °C	19 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
27 Sept after	38.6 °C	19 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
28 Sept after	39.1 °C	22 %	29 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 48
29 Sept after	40.6 °C	20 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
30 Sept after	37.8 °C	32 %	41 km/h	3.9 mm	Moderate 21

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 23 Aug 2017

After · 22 Sept 2017

Before After

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 · 653Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Luciara fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 August 2017 and 15 September 2017: 17 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 16,753 hectares (167.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Luciara (16,852 ha, 4.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 40.8 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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.

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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.

Where it burned