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Nova Nazaré fire, August 2018 Nova Nazaré, Nova Xavantina, Cocalinho

Out · last detection 16 Sept 2018, 17:45 UTC

The fire started on 31 August 2018 in Nova Nazaré, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 58,818 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 37th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). The largest in Brazil in 2018, of 291.

Burnt area
58,818ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
31 Aug 2018 – 16 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
31 Aug
2018
Heat detections
2,328
in a single hotspot: 230 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
38.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Aug16 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

3112345678910111213141516

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
53km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 15.8 mm on 30 Sept.

This area had burned before

76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 40,218 ha in 2016, 16,382 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 44,644 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Nova Nazaré where it started
    59,098 ha reached on 31 Aug
    15 %
  2. Nova Xavantina 24,345 inhabitants
    76 ha reached on 12 Sept
    0.0 %
  3. Cocalinho 6,220 inhabitants
    56 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)
24 Aug 35.9 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Aug 34.7 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Aug 33.2 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Aug 34.2 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Aug 34.6 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Aug 35.1 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
30 Aug 35.7 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 Aug 35.9 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Sept 35.9 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Sept 36.5 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Sept 32.2 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Sept 31.5 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
5 Sept 33.1 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Sept 35.5 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Sept 36.7 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 Sept 35.7 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Sept 36.8 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Sept 36.6 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Sept 37.1 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Sept 39.1 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Sept 36.1 °C 31 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Sept 36.7 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Sept 33.6 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Sept 36.5 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Sept after 35.0 °C 39 % 33 km/h 18.9 mm Low 6
18 Sept after 35.5 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 20
19 Sept after 35.4 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
20 Sept after 32.9 °C 44 % 36 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 21
21 Sept after 35.9 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 Sept after 36.7 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 Sept after 37.2 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Sept after 37.6 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Sept after 34.7 °C 41 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
26 Sept after 36.0 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
27 Sept after 36.9 °C 30 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Sept after 34.9 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Sept after 35.9 °C 36 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Sept after 36.1 °C 37 % 35 km/h 15.8 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Aug 2018
After · 23 Sept 2018

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 · 2,328Every 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 31 August 2018 and 16 September 2018: 17 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 58,818 hectares (588.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Nova Nazaré (59,098 ha, 15 %); Nova Xavantina (76 ha, 0.0 %); Cocalinho (56 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.1 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.