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Paracatu fire, 14 September 2019 Paracatu, Guarda-Mor

Out · last detection 16 Sept 2019, 17:00 UTC

The fire started on 14 September 2019 in Paracatu, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,177 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 110th largest in Minas Gerais since 2016 (of 227 with a page). Number 601 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.

Burnt area
4,177ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
14 Sept 2019 – 16 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
14 Sept
2019
Heat detections
103
in a single hotspot: 45 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
867MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Sept16 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

141516

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
38km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.4 mm on 26 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Paracatu 94,023 inhabitants where it started
    2,843 ha reached on 14 Sept
    0.3 %
  2. Guarda-Mor 6,539 inhabitants
    1,363 ha reached on 15 Sept
    0.7 %

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)
9 Sept 31.5 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Sept 33.7 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
11 Sept 34.6 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Sept 35.3 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Sept 35.6 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Sept 34.0 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Sept 32.1 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Sept 32.7 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Sept after 33.5 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Sept after 35.4 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Sept after 36.4 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Sept after 37.2 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Sept after 36.8 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Sept after 35.2 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Sept after 32.5 °C 31 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Sept after 31.1 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Sept after 29.3 °C 40 % 33 km/h 0.8 mm High 26
26 Sept after 25.8 °C 49 % 24 km/h 6.4 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Sept 2019
After · 23 Sept 2019

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 · 103Every 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 Paracatu fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 September 2019 and 16 September 2019: 3 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 4,177 hectares (41.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Paracatu (2,843 ha, 0.3 %); Guarda-Mor (1,363 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 38 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.