Skip to content
worldfires
BR · Brazil · →

Nova Nazaré fire, July 2016 Nova Nazaré, Água Boa

Out · last detection 29 Aug 2016, 16:30 UTC

The fire started on 27 July 2016 in Nova Nazaré, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 34 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 56,021 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 43th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). The largest in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

Burnt area
56,021ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
34days
27 Jul 2016 – 29 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
27 Jul
2016
Heat detections
2,980
in a single hotspot: 299 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
36.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Jul29 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122232426272829

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
45km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Nova Nazaré where it started
    56,206 ha reached on 20 Jul
    14 %
  2. Água Boa 29,219 inhabitants
    211 ha reached on 25 Jul
    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)
20 Jul 32.6 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Jul 33.1 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Jul 32.9 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Jul 34.3 °C 21 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Jul 34.6 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Jul 33.0 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Jul 33.5 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Jul 34.0 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Jul 33.8 °C 22 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Jul 34.3 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Jul 33.5 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Jul 32.6 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Aug 32.6 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Aug 32.9 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Aug 33.6 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Aug 34.4 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Aug 33.9 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Aug 34.2 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Aug 34.4 °C 19 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Aug 35.8 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Aug 36.6 °C 16 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Aug 35.5 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Aug 34.4 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Aug 34.6 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Aug 36.7 °C 18 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Aug 36.7 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Aug 36.1 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Aug 36.6 °C 28 % 31 km/h 1.8 mm High 24
17 Aug 35.5 °C 32 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
18 Aug 36.7 °C 23 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Aug 37.3 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Aug 36.2 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Aug 30.5 °C 50 % 45 km/h 3.8 mm Low 10
22 Aug 28.2 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Aug 33.0 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Aug 35.1 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Aug 34.5 °C 33 % 37 km/h 1.4 mm High 23
26 Aug 34.6 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
27 Aug 35.9 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Aug 36.4 °C 25 % 41 km/h 1.1 mm High 35
29 Aug 35.5 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Aug after 34.7 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Aug after 33.6 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Sept after 35.6 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Sept after 36.3 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Sept after 35.0 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Sept after 34.5 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Sept after 36.3 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Sept after 34.2 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Sept after 35.8 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 Sept after 36.3 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Sept after 37.1 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Sept after 37.9 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Sept after 37.5 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Sept after 38.0 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Sept after 36.6 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Sept after 37.4 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Sept after 37.7 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Jul 2016
After · 5 Sept 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 · 2,980Every 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 Nova Nazaré fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 July 2016 and 29 August 2016: 34 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 56,021 hectares (560.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nova Nazaré (56,206 ha, 14 %); Água Boa (211 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, class Very 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.