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Pontes e Lacerda fire, June 2017 Pontes e Lacerda

Out · last detection 20 Jun 2017, 17:38 UTC

The fire started on 14 June 2017 in Pontes e Lacerda, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,921 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1446th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 660 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,921ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
14 Jun 2017 – 20 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
14 Jun
2017
Heat detections
118
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
6
Low · FWI index
Energy released
590MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Jun 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jun20 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

14151617181920

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

30°high
45km/h · peak gust
49%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Pontes e Lacerda where it started
    3,951 ha reached on 14 Jun
    0.5 %

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)
14 Jun 28.5 °C 59 % 17 km/h 0.1 mm Low 6
15 Jun 29.5 °C 51 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
16 Jun 28.6 °C 51 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
17 Jun 28.2 °C 49 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
18 Jun 28.2 °C 53 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
19 Jun 20.5 °C 65 % 45 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 12
20 Jun 18.5 °C 64 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
21 Jun after 24.5 °C 56 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
22 Jun after 28.0 °C 43 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
23 Jun after 29.0 °C 46 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
24 Jun after 28.7 °C 46 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
25 Jun after 28.8 °C 43 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
26 Jun after 28.5 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
27 Jun after 27.8 °C 46 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
28 Jun after 28.6 °C 42 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
29 Jun after 28.7 °C 42 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
30 Jun after 28.9 °C 37 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Jun 2017
After · 27 Jun 2017

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 · 118Every 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 Pontes e Lacerda fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 June 2017 and 20 June 2017: 7 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 3,921 hectares (39.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pontes e Lacerda (3,951 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.5 °C, humidity dropped to 49 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 13, 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
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.