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Mucajaí fire, 16 March 2016 Mucajaí, Alto Alegre

Out · last detection 27 Mar 2016, 05:40 UTC

The fire started on 16 March 2016 in Mucajaí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,416 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 17th largest in Roraima since 2016 (of 120 with a page). Number 69 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

Burnt area
12,416ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
16 Mar 2016 – 27 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
16 Mar
2016
Heat detections
596
in a single hotspot: 260 MW
Danger at start
20
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
4.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Mar27 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

161718192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
49km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 30 Mar.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Mucajaí 18,095 inhabitants where it started
    12,500 ha reached on 16 Mar
    1.0 %
  2. Alto Alegre 21,096 inhabitants
    2 ha
    0.0 %

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)
16 Mar 36.9 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
17 Mar 35.4 °C 41 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
18 Mar 36.3 °C 35 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
19 Mar 34.3 °C 41 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm High 22
20 Mar 35.9 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
21 Mar 36.2 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
22 Mar 36.3 °C 32 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
23 Mar 36.4 °C 32 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Mar 36.2 °C 32 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Mar 36.0 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Mar 35.4 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Mar 35.5 °C 38 % 48 km/h 0.4 mm High 30
28 Mar after 31.2 °C 50 % 41 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 15
29 Mar after 34.1 °C 38 % 25 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 20
30 Mar after 35.1 °C 42 % 39 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 20

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Mar 2016
After · 3 Apr 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 · 596Every 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 Mucajaí fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 March 2016 and 27 March 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 12,416 hectares (124.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mucajaí (12,500 ha, 1.0 %); Alto Alegre (2 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.