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BR · Brazil · –

Montividiu do Norte fire, August 2021 Montividiu do Norte

Out · last detection 5 Sept 2021, 04:28 UTC

The fire started on 25 August 2021 in Montividiu do Norte, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,824 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 347th largest in Goiás since 2016 (of 488 with a page). Number 582 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Burnt area
3,824ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
25 Aug 2021 – 5 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
25 Aug
2021
Heat detections
131
in a single hotspot: 60 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
94MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Aug5 Sept
5 Sept 2021

How it evolved, day by day

25 Aug 2021 · 37 MW · 8 26 Aug 2021 · 28 MW · 12 27 Aug 2021 · 42 MW · 10 28 Aug 2021 · 572 MW · 42 29 Aug 2021 · 173 MW · 23 30 Aug 2021 · 27 MW · 11 1 Sept 2021 · 15 MW · 4 2 Sept 2021 · 12 MW · 1 3 Sept 2021 · 69 MW · 8 4 Sept 2021 · 54 MW · 10 5 Sept 2021 · 2 MW · 2
25 Aug 28 Aug 1 Sept 4 Sept

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
42km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

38% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,466 ha in 2019.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.4% of the area of London (38 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. Montividiu do Norte 3,779 inhabitants where it started
    3,848 ha reached on 25 Aug
    2.9 %

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 2020
Built-up area0.18 ha
Residents≈ 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.18 hectares of built-up land and about 20 residents (GHSL 2020, 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.

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)

Started with Extreme FWI: 46 % of the area in Brazil 60 days without rain: 55 % of the area in Brazil

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
25 Aug 34.7 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
26 Aug 35.6 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
27 Aug 35.4 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
28 Aug 33.8 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
29 Aug 34.3 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Aug 34.5 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
31 Aug 32.4 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
1 Sept 33.3 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Sept 32.1 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Sept 34.1 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Sept 35.0 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Sept 36.3 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Sept after 37.2 °C 21 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Sept after 36.9 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
8 Sept after 35.6 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
9 Sept after 36.3 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 Sept after 37.3 °C 18 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Sept after 38.1 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
12 Sept after 35.8 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Sept after 35.3 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
14 Sept after 36.0 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Sept after 37.1 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 54.7, a minimum humidity of 23% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 15.

FWI at the start 54.7
Minimum humidity 23 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Santa Tereza de Goiás fire, August 2019
3,898 ha 10 days FWI 55.2 Min. humidity 23 % 63 km away, in 2019

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

10 days
median duration
4,658 ha
median area
13 %
went past 10,000 ha
1.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 3 of 15 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (3,824 ha against a median of 4,658 ha) and lasted 12 days, against 10 days.

In 12 of 15, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.7 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

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
42km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 5 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 3 of 15, with a median of 1.7 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 2016.
  • 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 · 18 Aug 2021
After · 12 Sept 2021

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 · 131Every 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 Montividiu do Norte fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 August 2021 and 5 September 2021: 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 3,824 hectares (38.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Montividiu do Norte (3,848 ha, 2.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 42 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 15. Their median duration was 10 days and their median area 4,658 ha; 13 % went past 10,000 ha. In 12 of 15, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.7 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 131 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 2020, 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.