Paranatinga fire, July 2026 Paranatinga
The fire started on 18 July 2026 in Paranatinga, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,326 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 687th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 191 in Brazil in 2026, of 747.
- Burnt area
- 7,326ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 18days
- 18 Jul 2026 – 4 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 18 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 187
- in a single hotspot: 335 MW
- Danger at start
- 19
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.7GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,822 ha in 2017, 1,423 ha in 2019, 4,784 ha in 2020, 985 ha in 2021, 5,897 ha in 2023, 53 ha in 2024, 1,260 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,997 ha that had burned before.
- 5,897 ha Paranatinga fire, August 2023 16,795 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,822 ha Paranatinga fire, August 2017 25,261 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,784 ha Paranatinga fire, September 2020 15,503 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,384 ha Paranatinga fire, August 2019 20,508 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 985 ha Paranatinga fire, August 2021 5,666 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 388 ha Paranatinga fire, October 2025 6,553 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
7,370 ha reached on 17 Jul0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Jul | 32.8 °C | 28 % | 10 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 18 Jul | 32.7 °C | 24 % | 9 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 19 Jul | 33.3 °C | 25 % | 9 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 20 Jul | 33.8 °C | 24 % | 8 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 21 Jul | 34.0 °C | 21 % | 8 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 22 Jul | 34.5 °C | 23 % | 8 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 23 Jul | 34.8 °C | 22 % | 7 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 24 Jul | 35.0 °C | 22 % | 7 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 25 Jul | 36.0 °C | 23 % | 7 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 26 Jul | 35.8 °C | 20 % | 7 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 27 Jul | 35.3 °C | 21 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 28 Jul | 35.7 °C | 22 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 29 Jul | 34.1 °C | 34 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 30 Jul | 34.7 °C | 25 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 31 Jul | 35.5 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 1 Aug | 34.9 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 2 Aug | 34.6 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 3 Aug | 33.5 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 4 Aug | 34.0 °C | 22 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 5 Aug after | 34.5 °C | 23 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 6 Aug after | 34.7 °C | 23 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 7 Aug after | 35.3 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 8 Aug after | 36.0 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 9 Aug after | 36.3 °C | 24 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 10 Aug after | 38.2 °C | 17 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 11 Aug after | 38.0 °C | 17 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 12 Aug after | 35.8 °C | 17 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 13 Aug after | 35.6 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 14 Aug after | 36.0 °C | 19 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 22 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 62 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 187Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 16,795 haParanatinga4 August 2023 · 12 days · 6 km away
- 15,503 haParanatinga2 September 2020 · 21 days · 8 km away
- 25,261 haParanatinga19 August 2017 · 39 days · 9 km away
- 20,508 haParanatinga29 August 2019 · 24 days · 11 km away
- 20,898 haParanatingaJune 2026 · 17 days · 16 km away
- 20,889 haParanatinga3 September 2019 · 20 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Paranatinga fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 July 2026 and 4 August 2026: 18 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 7,326 hectares (73.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Paranatinga (7,370 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class 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
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.