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BR · Brazil · –

Paranaíta fire, August 2016 Paranaíta

Out · last detection 18 Aug 2016, 16:38 UTC

The fire started on 5 August 2016 in Paranaíta, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,756 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1443th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1872 with a page). Number 448 in Brazil in 2016, of 648.

Burnt area
3,756ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
5 Aug 2016 – 18 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
5 Aug
2016
Heat detections
166
in a single hotspot: 60 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Average daily power
102MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Aug18 Aug
18 Aug 2016

How it evolved, day by day

5 Aug 2016 · 30 MW · 2 6 Aug 2016 · 46 MW · 7 7 Aug 2016 · 2 MW · 1 9 Aug 2016 · 57 MW · 8 10 Aug 2016 · 182 MW · 35 11 Aug 2016 · 37 MW · 12 12 Aug 2016 · 379 MW · 13 13 Aug 2016 · 31 MW · 6 14 Aug 2016 · 189 MW · 38 15 Aug 2016 · 44 MW · 7 16 Aug 2016 · 141 MW · 14 17 Aug 2016 · 122 MW · 9 18 Aug 2016 · 71 MW · 14
5 Aug 9 Aug 12 Aug 15 Aug 18 Aug

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
42km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 54 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.6 mm on 29 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.4% of the area of London (38 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. Paranaíta 11,671 inhabitants where it started
    3,778 ha reached on 5 Aug
    0.8 %

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 2015
Built-up area0.21 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.21 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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)
5 Aug 36.3 °C 25 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Aug 33.8 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Aug 33.8 °C 32 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Aug 35.5 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Aug 34.0 °C 32 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Aug 33.6 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
11 Aug 32.9 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Aug 32.6 °C 34 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Aug 32.8 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Aug 31.2 °C 45 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Aug 33.6 °C 47 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Aug 33.0 °C 41 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
17 Aug 35.1 °C 32 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 Aug 32.1 °C 50 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
19 Aug after 33.5 °C 42 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Aug after 32.3 °C 48 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
21 Aug after 29.2 °C 58 % 42 km/h 1.8 mm Moderate 12
22 Aug after 30.1 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
23 Aug after 32.1 °C 42 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
24 Aug after 33.0 °C 43 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
25 Aug after 32.2 °C 44 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 25
26 Aug after 31.6 °C 53 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 22
27 Aug after 30.8 °C 54 % 20 km/h 0.2 mm High 22
28 Aug after 32.0 °C 49 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 23
29 Aug after 29.5 °C 59 % 27 km/h 3.6 mm Low 5

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 35.5, a minimum humidity of 25% and 54 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 17.

FWI at the start 35.5
Minimum humidity 25 %
Days without rain 54
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Apiacás fire, August 2020
17,152 ha 36 days FWI 34.2 Min. humidity 24 % 35 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 6.7 mm on 22 Sept.

What happened to them

16 days
median duration
4,498 ha
median area
24 %
went past 10,000 ha
2.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 10 of 17 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (3,756 ha against a median of 4,498 ha) and lasted 14 days, against 16 days.

In 7 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 2.6 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

3.6 mmfirst rain
29 Aug11 days after it ended
42km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 18 Aug, and on 29 Aug 3.6 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 10 of 17, with a median of 2.6 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 · 29 Jul 2016
After · 25 Aug 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 · 166Every 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 Paranaíta fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 August 2016 and 18 August 2016: 14 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 3,756 hectares (37.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Paranaíta (3,778 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.
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 16 days and their median area 4,498 ha; 24 % went past 10,000 ha. In 7 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 2.6 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 166 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 2015, 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.