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Mateiros fire, July 2016 Mateiros

Out · last detection 30 Jul 2016, 17:34 UTC

The fire started on 19 July 2016 in Mateiros, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,153 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 569th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 264 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

Burnt area
5,153ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
19 Jul 2016 – 30 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
19 Jul
2016
Heat detections
191
in a single hotspot: 100 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Jul30 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

192021222324252627282930

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
52km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 34 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Mateiros 2,748 inhabitants where it started
    5,182 ha reached on 14 Jul
    0.5 %

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)
14 Jul 34.8 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Jul 34.0 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Jul 34.6 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Jul 35.2 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Jul 35.7 °C 23 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Jul 35.5 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Jul 34.8 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Jul 34.3 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Jul 34.3 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Jul 34.0 °C 28 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Jul 32.7 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Jul 33.2 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Jul 32.8 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Jul 32.5 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Jul 32.6 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Jul 33.7 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Jul 32.3 °C 28 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
31 Jul after 32.4 °C 29 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Aug after 32.4 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Aug after 33.0 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Aug after 33.6 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Aug after 33.6 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
5 Aug after 33.2 °C 24 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
6 Aug after 33.1 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Aug after 34.4 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Aug after 35.2 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Aug after 36.1 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Jul 2016
After · 6 Aug 2016

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 · 191Every 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 Mateiros fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 July 2016 and 30 July 2016: 12 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 5,153 hectares (51.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mateiros (5,182 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.