Nova Nazaré fire, August 2020 Nova Nazaré, Nova Xavantina
The fire started on 9 August 2020 in Nova Nazaré, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 44 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 70,325 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 32th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 12 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 70,325ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 44days
- 9 Aug 2020 – 21 Sept 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 9 Aug
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 2,848
- in a single hotspot: 241 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1.2GW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.2 mm on 22 Sept.
This area had burned before
94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 46,035 ha in 2016, 28,544 ha in 2017, 36,915 ha in 2018, 33,113 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 65,923 ha that had burned before.
- 34,190 ha Nova Nazaré fire, August 2018 58,818 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 31,514 ha Nova Nazaré fire, July 2016 56,021 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 22,632 ha Nova Nazaré fire, August 2017 47,537 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 16,362 ha Nova Nazaré fire, August 2019 27,124 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,949 ha Nova Nazaré fire, August 2019 14,153 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,668 ha Nova Nazaré fire, September 2017 8,630 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,507 ha Nova Nazaré fire, August 2016 4,493 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,309 ha Nova Nazaré fire, July 2019 3,268 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Nova Nazaré where it started70,797 ha reached on 9 Aug17 %
-
Nova Xavantina 24,345 inhabitants17 ha0.0 %
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 2020Inside the perimeter there were about 0.01 hectares of built-up land and about 80 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)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Aug | 32.2 °C | 24 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 10 Aug | 34.1 °C | 24 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 11 Aug | 34.9 °C | 26 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 12 Aug | 35.4 °C | 23 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Aug | 36.6 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 14 Aug | 36.0 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 15 Aug | 37.3 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 16 Aug | 37.7 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 17 Aug | 39.2 °C | 18 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 18 Aug | 39.3 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 19 Aug | 38.7 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 20 Aug | 37.7 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 21 Aug | 31.8 °C | 29 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 22 Aug | 31.6 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 23 Aug | 34.1 °C | 35 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Aug | 36.8 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 25 Aug | 36.9 °C | 29 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Aug | 37.7 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 27 Aug | 37.6 °C | 14 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 28 Aug | 37.4 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 29 Aug | 37.6 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 30 Aug | 38.2 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 31 Aug | 38.4 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 1 Sept | 37.8 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 2 Sept | 37.2 °C | 16 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 3 Sept | 37.2 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 4 Sept | 36.7 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 5 Sept | 37.2 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 6 Sept | 37.9 °C | 17 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 7 Sept | 38.0 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 8 Sept | 38.9 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 9 Sept | 38.7 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 10 Sept | 38.9 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 11 Sept | 38.5 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 12 Sept | 38.8 °C | 13 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 13 Sept | 37.7 °C | 17 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 14 Sept | 37.3 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 15 Sept | 37.8 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 16 Sept | 38.5 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 17 Sept | 39.2 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 18 Sept | 40.2 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 19 Sept | 40.0 °C | 20 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 20 Sept | 38.6 °C | 27 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 21 Sept | 36.0 °C | 31 % | 32 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 37 |
| 22 Sept after | 30.1 °C | 52 % | 30 km/h | 4.2 mm | Low 7 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 2,848Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 56,021 haNova NazaréJuly 2016 · 48 days · 8 km away
- 19,960 haNova Nazaré29 August 2021 · 26 days · 8 km away
- 27,124 haNova Nazaré14 August 2019 · 43 days · 13 km away
- 47,537 haNova NazaréAugust 2017 · 36 days · 14 km away
- 124,689 haNova Nazaré28 July 2026 · 38 days · 18 km away
- 58,818 haNova NazaréAugust 2018 · 17 days · 19 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Nova Nazaré fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 9 August 2020 to 21 September 2020 (44 days). The perimeter dates it from 15 August 2020 to 19 September 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 70,325 hectares (703.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nova Nazaré (70,797 ha, 17 %); Nova Xavantina (17 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 19 September 2020 → 21 September 2020.
- Start date: 15 August 2020 → 9 August 2020.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 5 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 15 August 2020 to 19 September 2020. 2,848 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.
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.