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Poconé fire, 3 October 2021 Poconé, Cáceres

Out · last detection 25 Oct 2021, 18:04 UTC

The fire started on 3 October 2021 in Poconé, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 50,134 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 46th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 11 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Burnt area
50,134ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
3 Oct 2021 – 24 Oct 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
3 Oct
2021
Heat detections
3,674
in a single hotspot: 642 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
84.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Oct 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Oct24 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

34567891012131415171819202122232425

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
55km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 2 Nov.

This area had burned before

78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 14,041 ha in 2019, 43,739 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 39,296 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Poconé 31,217 inhabitants where it started
    30,109 ha reached on 3 Oct
    1.8 %
  2. Cáceres 89,681 inhabitants
    20,403 ha reached on 3 Oct
    0.8 %

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)
3 Oct 37.4 °C 34 % 49 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 42
4 Oct 33.9 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Oct 34.7 °C 40 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Oct 36.3 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
7 Oct 36.2 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
8 Oct 37.8 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
9 Oct 37.6 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
10 Oct 37.2 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
11 Oct 32.5 °C 54 % 28 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 15
12 Oct 35.8 °C 43 % 19 km/h 0.2 mm High 23
13 Oct 38.6 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Oct 36.3 °C 38 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Oct 38.7 °C 32 % 55 km/h 13.6 mm Moderate 20
16 Oct 29.8 °C 51 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
17 Oct 32.7 °C 43 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
18 Oct 33.3 °C 43 % 41 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 18
19 Oct 34.5 °C 38 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
20 Oct 36.7 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Oct 37.9 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
22 Oct 37.3 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
23 Oct 39.0 °C 31 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Oct 31.7 °C 50 % 41 km/h 25.5 mm Very low 5
25 Oct after 30.8 °C 46 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
26 Oct after 27.3 °C 63 % 14 km/h 2.5 mm Very low 2
27 Oct after 34.2 °C 44 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
28 Oct after 34.6 °C 49 % 30 km/h 2.7 mm Low 6
29 Oct after 34.1 °C 47 % 19 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 12
30 Oct after 36.9 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 20
31 Oct after 32.9 °C 52 % 30 km/h 7.2 mm Very low 2
1 Nov after 32.6 °C 51 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
2 Nov after 35.9 °C 42 % 25 km/h 1.2 mm Low 11

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Sept 2021
After · 31 Oct 2021

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 · 3,674Every 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 Poconé fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 October 2021 and 24 October 2021: 22 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 50,134 hectares (501.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Poconé (30,109 ha, 1.8 %); Cáceres (20,403 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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
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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.