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Paranatinga fire, 3 September 2019 Paranatinga, Nova Ubiratã

Out · last detection 15 Sept 2019, 17:20 UTC

The fire started on 3 September 2019 in Paranatinga, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,805 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 1512th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 683 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.

Burnt area
3,805ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
3 Sept 2019 – 15 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
3 Sept
2019
Heat detections
215
in a single hotspot: 221 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Sept15 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

3456789101112131415

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
42km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.2 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. Paranatinga 26,423 inhabitants where it started
    3,805 ha reached on 28 Aug
    0.2 %
  2. Nova Ubiratã 11,530 inhabitants
    29 ha
    0.0 %

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)
28 Aug 34.5 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Aug 34.3 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Aug 36.0 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Aug 36.1 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Sept 36.2 °C 27 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Sept 36.4 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Sept 37.3 °C 25 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Sept 38.0 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Sept 38.7 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Sept 38.1 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Sept 36.1 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Sept 36.0 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Sept 36.4 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Sept 36.3 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Sept 37.3 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Sept 38.2 °C 24 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Sept 35.6 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Sept 37.8 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Sept 38.4 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 Sept after 38.0 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Sept after 39.3 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Sept after 37.1 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Sept after 35.9 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Sept after 37.5 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
21 Sept after 36.7 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Sept after 37.1 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.8 mm High 30
23 Sept after 36.9 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Sept after 35.4 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Sept after 35.7 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Sept after 28.8 °C 57 % 23 km/h 5.2 mm Very low 5

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Aug 2019
After · 22 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 · 215Every 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 Paranatinga fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 September 2019 and 15 September 2019: 13 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 3,805 hectares (38.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Paranatinga (3,805 ha, 0.2 %); Nova Ubiratã (29 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.3 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 42 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.