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Mojuí dos Campos fire, 4 November 2023 Placas, Mojuí dos Campos

Out · last detection 25 Nov 2023, 16:58 UTC

The fire started on 4 November 2023 in Mojuí dos Campos, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,875 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 640th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 957 with a page). Number 272 in Brazil in 2023, of 430.

Burnt area
3,875ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
4 Nov 2023 – 25 Nov 2023
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
4 Nov
2023
Heat detections
261
in a single hotspot: 68 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Average daily power
147MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Nov25 Nov
25 Nov 2023

How it evolved, day by day

4 Nov 2023 · 29 MW · 8 5 Nov 2023 · 1 MW · 2 6 Nov 2023 · 6 MW · 4 11 Nov 2023 · 17 MW · 4 12 Nov 2023 · 105 MW · 31 13 Nov 2023 · 196 MW · 29 14 Nov 2023 · 1,164 MW · 77 15 Nov 2023 · 384 MW · 54 16 Nov 2023 · 77 MW · 25 17 Nov 2023 · 47 MW · 19 18 Nov 2023 · 8 MW · 4 19 Nov 2023 · 6 MW · 1 22 Nov 2023 · 11 MW · 2 25 Nov 2023 · 5 MW · 1
4 Nov 11 Nov 14 Nov 17 Nov 22 Nov

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
40km/h · peak gust
34%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 12.7 mm on 26 Nov.

This area had burned before

27% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 40 ha in 2017, 52 ha in 2019, 967 ha in 2020.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.4% of the area of London (39 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Placas 18,668 inhabitants
    3,716 ha reached on 6 Nov
    0.5 %
  2. Mojuí dos Campos 23,501 inhabitants where it started
    184 ha reached on 4 Nov
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area1.3 ha
Residents≈ 300

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.3 hectares of built-up land and about 300 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
4 Nov 34.7 °C 44 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
5 Nov 34.9 °C 47 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
6 Nov 35.4 °C 47 % 32 km/h 5.6 mm Very low 4
7 Nov 29.2 °C 82 % 25 km/h 35.8 mm Very low 0
8 Nov 33.8 °C 58 % 28 km/h 0.4 mm Very low 1
9 Nov 35.0 °C 49 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm Low 7
10 Nov 34.3 °C 52 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm Low 10
11 Nov 33.7 °C 55 % 34 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 11
12 Nov 35.4 °C 45 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 13
13 Nov 36.6 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
14 Nov 37.5 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
15 Nov 37.0 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
16 Nov 35.8 °C 44 % 25 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 18
17 Nov 35.7 °C 43 % 31 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 20
18 Nov 36.0 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
19 Nov 35.6 °C 45 % 27 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 20
20 Nov 35.2 °C 47 % 31 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 13
21 Nov 33.8 °C 49 % 34 km/h 2.2 mm Low 6
22 Nov 35.5 °C 45 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 14
23 Nov 32.1 °C 52 % 40 km/h 3.3 mm Very low 5
24 Nov 34.4 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 15
25 Nov 33.7 °C 48 % 33 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 16
26 Nov after 30.8 °C 59 % 24 km/h 12.7 mm Very low 1

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 23.8, a minimum humidity of 44% and 10 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2017: 19.

FWI at the start 23.8
Minimum humidity 44 %
Days without rain 10
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Placas fire, October 2023
3,628 ha 15 days FWI 25.4 Min. humidity 44 % 10 km away, in 2023

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.3 mm on 18 Oct.

What happened to them

15 days
median duration
3,596 ha
median area
0 %
went past 10,000 ha
3.4 mm
rain at the end (median; 19 of 19 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (3,875 ha against a median of 3,596 ha) and lasted 22 days, against 15 days.

All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 3.4 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

12.7 mmfirst rain
26 Novthe day after it ended
40km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 25 Nov, and on 26 Nov 12.7 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 19 of 19, with a median of 3.4 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2017.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Oct 2023
After · 2 Dec 2023

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 · Copernicus

On 15 November 2023 the air beside the fire reached 340 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 157: 10 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak340 µg/m³
Days over the guideline14 days
PM10486 µg/m³
Optical depth3.83
9 Nov12 Nov15 Nov18 Nov21 Nov
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 261Every 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 Mojuí dos Campos fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 4 November 2023 to 25 November 2023 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 11 November 2023 to 19 November 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,875 hectares (38.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Placas (3,716 ha, 0.5 %); Mojuí dos Campos (184 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2017 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 19. Their median duration was 15 days and their median area 3,596 ha; 0 % went past 10,000 ha. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 3.4 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 19 November 2023 → 25 November 2023.
  2. Start date: 11 November 2023 → 4 November 2023.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 11 November 2023 to 19 November 2023. 261 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.