Luciara fire, 11 September 2022 Luciara, São Félix do Araguaia
The fire started on 11 September 2022 in Luciara, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,373 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 996th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 272 in Brazil in 2022, of 687.
- Burnt area
- 5,373ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 11 Sept 2022 – 17 Sept 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 11 Sept
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 157
- in a single hotspot: 183 MW
- Danger at start
- 47
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.3GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.6 mm on 18 Sept.
This area had burned before
89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 145 ha in 2016, 3,979 ha in 2017, 3,058 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,789 ha that had burned before.
- 3,893 ha Luciara fire, September 2017 27,306 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,271 ha São Félix do Araguaia fire, September 2019 8,154 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 788 ha Luciara fire, September 2019 10,193 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 145 ha São Félix do Araguaia fire, August 2016 8,536 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
3,785 ha reached on 11 Sept0.9 %
-
São Félix do Araguaia 13,621 inhabitants1,624 ha reached on 14 Sept0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Sept | 38.6 °C | 16 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 12 Sept | 39.2 °C | 19 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 13 Sept | 36.9 °C | 30 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 14 Sept | 37.3 °C | 27 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 15 Sept | 37.0 °C | 27 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 16 Sept | 38.1 °C | 26 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 17 Sept | 36.9 °C | 34 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 18 Sept after | 34.8 °C | 44 % | 32 km/h | 9.6 mm | Low 8 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 13 September 2022 the air beside the fire reached 377 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 124: 8.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 157Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Luciara fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 September 2022 and 17 September 2022: 7 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 5,373 hectares (53.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Luciara (3,785 ha, 0.9 %); São Félix do Araguaia (1,624 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.
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
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.