How long did the Paranatinga fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 August 2017 and 27 September 2017: 31 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 9,394 hectares (93.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Paranatinga (9,431 ha, 0.4 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.

BR · Brazil · 2017-08-28 → 2017-09-27

Paranatinga fire, 28 August 2017 Paranatinga

Out · last detection 27 Sept 2017, 16:43 UTC

The fire started on 28 August 2017 in Paranatinga, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 31 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,394 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 504th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 193 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area: 9,394ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 31days; 28 Aug 2017 – 27 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 28 Aug; 2017
Heat detections: 856; in a single hotspot: 137 MW
Danger at start: 41; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 7.8GW; sum of detected power

Play back 27 Sept 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Aug27 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2829311234567891011121314151617181920212223242527

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

44km/h · peak gust

16%lowest humidity

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 2 Oct.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Paranatinga 26,423 inhabitants where it started

9,431 ha reached on 25 Aug

0.4 %

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)
25 Aug	35.4 °C	26 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
26 Aug	36.3 °C	24 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
27 Aug	37.5 °C	24 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
28 Aug	37.5 °C	21 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
29 Aug	37.2 °C	22 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
30 Aug	37.9 °C	18 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
31 Aug	37.9 °C	17 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
1 Sept	38.6 °C	16 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
2 Sept	37.0 °C	21 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
3 Sept	35.8 °C	20 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
4 Sept	34.3 °C	27 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
5 Sept	34.9 °C	26 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
6 Sept	35.5 °C	24 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
7 Sept	36.6 °C	29 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
8 Sept	37.2 °C	29 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
9 Sept	37.6 °C	28 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
10 Sept	37.7 °C	21 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
11 Sept	37.8 °C	25 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
12 Sept	38.2 °C	27 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
13 Sept	36.1 °C	29 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
14 Sept	36.9 °C	22 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
15 Sept	36.4 °C	26 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
16 Sept	36.4 °C	24 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
17 Sept	34.9 °C	22 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
18 Sept	37.2 °C	22 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
19 Sept	36.9 °C	26 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
20 Sept	36.4 °C	27 %	38 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 47
21 Sept	32.0 °C	33 %	44 km/h	2.1 mm	High 22
22 Sept	35.4 °C	33 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
23 Sept	36.1 °C	31 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
24 Sept	36.1 °C	31 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
25 Sept	37.1 °C	30 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
26 Sept	35.3 °C	28 %	29 km/h	0.3 mm	High 33
27 Sept	33.8 °C	36 %	32 km/h	2.3 mm	Moderate 16
28 Sept after	29.7 °C	61 %	24 km/h	7.0 mm	Very low 4
29 Sept after	34.7 °C	39 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
30 Sept after	35.4 °C	43 %	22 km/h	1.1 mm	Moderate 16
1 Oct after	30.3 °C	58 %	33 km/h	1.4 mm	Low 10
2 Oct after	29.6 °C	61 %	44 km/h	4.2 mm	Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 21 Aug 2017

After · 4 Oct 2017

Before After

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 · 856Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Paranatinga fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 August 2017 and 27 September 2017: 31 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 9,394 hectares (93.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Paranatinga (9,431 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned