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Mateiros fire, July 2019 Mateiros

Out · last detection 16 Jul 2019, 16:24 UTC

The fire started on 14 July 2019 in Mateiros, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,911 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 843th largest in Tocantins since 2016 (of 1242 with a page). Number 657 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.

Burnt area
3,911ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
14 Jul 2019 – 16 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
14 Jul
2019
Heat detections
83
in a single hotspot: 51 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
915MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Jul 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jul16 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

141516

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
36km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone 57 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

20% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 773 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Mateiros 2,748 inhabitants where it started
    3,936 ha reached on 14 Jul
    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)
14 Jul 31.8 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Jul 32.7 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 Jul 32.7 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Jul after 33.3 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Jul after 31.9 °C 35 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Jul after 30.4 °C 34 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Jul after 30.1 °C 33 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Jul after 30.6 °C 33 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Jul after 30.6 °C 37 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Jul after 31.3 °C 34 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Jul after 31.6 °C 33 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Jul after 32.2 °C 29 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Jul after 30.7 °C 36 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Jul 2019
After · 23 Jul 2019

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 · 83Every 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 14 July 2019 and 16 July 2019: 3 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 3,911 hectares (39.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mateiros (3,936 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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

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.