Pimenteiras do Oeste fire, August 2016 Pimenteiras do Oeste, Cerejeiras
The fire started on 20 August 2016 in Pimenteiras do Oeste, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,496 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 56th largest in Rondônia since 2016 (of 300 with a page). Number 123 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.
- Burnt area
- 8,496ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 20 Aug 2016 – 29 Aug 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 20 Aug
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 318
- in a single hotspot: 277 MW
- Danger at start
- 3
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 6.5GW
- 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 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 16.9 mm on 2 Sept.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Pimenteiras do Oeste where it started8,381 ha reached on 20 Aug1.4 %
-
Cerejeiras 15,890 inhabitants174 ha reached on 24 Aug0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Aug | 34.3 °C | 61 % | 36 km/h | 8.1 mm | Very low 3 |
| 21 Aug | 23.3 °C | 39 % | 59 km/h | 6.4 mm | Very low 5 |
| 22 Aug | 26.9 °C | 34 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 23 Aug | 30.2 °C | 35 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 24 Aug | 34.7 °C | 37 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 25 Aug | 35.7 °C | 36 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 26 Aug | 35.9 °C | 39 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 27 Aug | 35.1 °C | 44 % | 27 km/h | 2.1 mm | Low 10 |
| 28 Aug | 36.4 °C | 37 % | 40 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 29 Aug | 31.7 °C | 57 % | 44 km/h | 17.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 30 Aug after | 20.5 °C | 67 % | 36 km/h | 8.0 mm | Very low 0 |
| 31 Aug after | 31.4 °C | 56 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 1 |
| 1 Sept after | 31.6 °C | 58 % | 18 km/h | 1.1 mm | Very low 2 |
| 2 Sept after | 29.3 °C | 65 % | 25 km/h | 16.9 mm | Very low 0 |
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.
Detections table · 318Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 17,532 haPimenteiras do Oeste8 November 2023 · 14 days · 12 km away
- 32,208 haCerejeirasSeptember 2023 · 20 days · 22 km away
- 21,007 haPimenteiras do OesteSeptember 2026 · 7 days · 26 km away
- 11,830 haBaures13 October 2016 · 8 days · 32 km away
- 20,773 haBaures2 October 2020 · 17 days · 33 km away
- 10,456 haBaures2 November 2023 · 20 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Pimenteiras do Oeste fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 August 2016 and 29 August 2016: 10 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 8,496 hectares (85.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pimenteiras do Oeste (8,381 ha, 1.4 %); Cerejeiras (174 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 18, class Moderate.
- 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.