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Nova Xavantina fire, August 2022 Nova Xavantina

Out · last detection 9 Sept 2022, 16:43 UTC

The fire started on 29 August 2022 in Nova Xavantina, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,821 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 399th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1872 with a page). Number 97 in Brazil in 2022, of 682.

Burnt area
10,821ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
29 Aug 2022 – 9 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
29 Aug
2022
Heat detections
331
in a single hotspot: 76 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
274MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Aug9 Sept
9 Sept 2022

How it evolved, day by day

29 Aug 2022 · 160 MW · 6 30 Aug 2022 · 183 MW · 45 31 Aug 2022 · 604 MW · 47 1 Sept 2022 · 292 MW · 70 2 Sept 2022 · 1,165 MW · 115 3 Sept 2022 · 197 MW · 29 4 Sept 2022 · 116 MW · 13 5 Sept 2022 · 12 MW · 4 7 Sept 2022 · 3 MW · 1 9 Sept 2022 · 6 MW · 1
29 Aug 31 Aug 2 Sept 4 Sept 7 Sept

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
41km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.6 mm on 19 Sept.

This area had burned before

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 9,810 ha in 2020.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 6.8% of the area of London (108 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Nova Xavantina 24,345 inhabitants where it started
    10,872 ha reached on 29 Aug
    2.0 %

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 2020
Built-up area0.45 ha
Residents≈ 40

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.45 hectares of built-up land and about 40 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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 55 % of the area in Brazil

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
29 Aug 36.1 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Aug 35.2 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Aug 34.5 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Sept 34.4 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Sept 33.9 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Sept 35.9 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Sept 35.8 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
5 Sept 36.8 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Sept 36.7 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
7 Sept 36.0 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Sept 36.6 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Sept 35.9 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Sept after 37.7 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
11 Sept after 37.0 °C 15 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Sept after 38.6 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Sept after 38.1 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Sept after 37.3 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
15 Sept after 33.6 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Sept after 36.1 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Sept after 37.3 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Sept after 36.2 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Sept after 34.6 °C 36 % 31 km/h 2.6 mm Moderate 16

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 48.0, a minimum humidity of 17% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 17.

FWI at the start 48.0
Minimum humidity 17 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Nova Nazaré fire, September 2019
4,997 ha 10 days FWI 48.9 Min. humidity 17 % 34 km away, in 2019

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.5 mm on 26 Sept.

What happened to them

9 days
median duration
4,997 ha
median area
18 %
went past 10,000 ha
1.5 mm
rain at the end (median; 9 of 17 had it)

It was 2.2 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 12 days, against 9 days.

Only 3 of its 17 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 8 of 17, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.5 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

2.6 mmfirst rain
19 Sept10 days after it ended
41km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 9 Sept, and on 19 Sept 2.6 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 9 of 17, with a median of 1.5 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Aug 2022
After · 16 Sept 2022

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 31 August 2022 the air beside the fire reached 49 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak49 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM1070 µg/m³
Optical depth0.48
27 Aug30 Aug2 Sept5 Sept8 Sept
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 · 331Every 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 Xavantina fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 29 August 2022 to 9 September 2022 (12 days). The perimeter dates it from 29 August 2022 to 5 September 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 10,821 hectares (108.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Nova Xavantina (10,872 ha, 2.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 17. Their median duration was 9 days and their median area 4,997 ha; 18 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 3 of its 17 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 8 of 17, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.5 mm.

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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 5 September 2022 → 9 September 2022.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 29 August 2022 to 5 September 2022. 331 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.