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Nobres fire, 31 August 2024 Nobres, Diamantino, Alto Paraguai

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2024, 16:42 UTC

The fire started on 31 August 2024 in Nobres, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 36,965 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 75th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 77 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Burnt area
36,965ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
31 Aug 2024 – 13 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
31 Aug
2024
Heat detections
1,865
in a single hotspot: 149 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
18.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Sept 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Aug13 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

311234567891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
43km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

65% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,023 ha in 2016, 8,952 ha in 2017, 1,435 ha in 2018, 22,043 ha in 2020, 1,498 ha in 2021, 6,740 ha in 2022, 2,038 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 23,860 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Nobres 15,492 inhabitants where it started
    25,554 ha reached on 29 Aug
    6.5 %
  2. Diamantino 21,941 inhabitants
    10,529 ha reached on 2 Sept
    1.3 %
  3. Alto Paraguai 8,009 inhabitants
    1,149 ha reached on 30 Aug
    0.6 %

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)
31 Aug 37.2 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
1 Sept 36.1 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Sept 35.7 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Sept 38.2 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Sept 38.3 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Sept 34.6 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Sept 36.2 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Sept 38.8 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
8 Sept 38.3 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
9 Sept 38.0 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
10 Sept 38.1 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
11 Sept 37.9 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
12 Sept 38.2 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Sept 38.6 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
14 Sept after 38.5 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
15 Sept after 35.2 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Sept after 33.4 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Sept after 37.4 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Sept after 39.9 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Sept after 37.9 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Sept after 38.1 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
21 Sept after 39.5 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Sept after 39.4 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Sept after 39.4 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Aug 2024
After · 20 Sept 2024

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 19 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 143 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 98: 6.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak143 µg/m³
Days over the guideline27 days
PM10207 µg/m³
Optical depth3.02
26272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122
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 · 1,865Every 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 Nobres fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 August 2024 and 13 September 2024: 14 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 36,965 hectares (369.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Nobres (25,554 ha, 6.5 %); Diamantino (10,529 ha, 1.3 %); Alto Paraguai (1,149 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.