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Porto Velho fire, 12 August 2016 Porto Velho

Out · last detection 15 Sept 2016, 05:18 UTC

The fire started on 12 August 2016 in Porto Velho, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 35 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,664 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 195th largest in Rondônia since 2016 (of 288 with a page). Number 466 in Brazil in 2016, of 648.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Nova Mamoré · 2022Candeias do Jamari · 2021Porto Velho · 2024Porto Velho · 2016

Burnt area
3,664ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
35days
12 Aug 2016 – 15 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
12 Aug
2016
Heat detections
490
in a single hotspot: 271 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
214MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Aug15 Sept
15 Sept 2016

How it evolved, day by day

12 Aug 2016 · 2 MW · 1 13 Aug 2016 · 3 MW · 2 14 Aug 2016 · 9 MW · 1 15 Aug 2016 · 1 MW · 1 18 Aug 2016 · 31 MW · 5 19 Aug 2016 · 6 MW · 3 22 Aug 2016 · 1,657 MW · 22 23 Aug 2016 · 279 MW · 37 24 Aug 2016 · 394 MW · 39 25 Aug 2016 · 541 MW · 34 26 Aug 2016 · 845 MW · 38 27 Aug 2016 · 58 MW · 17 28 Aug 2016 · 87 MW · 9 29 Aug 2016 · 409 MW · 12 30 Aug 2016 · 93 MW · 21 31 Aug 2016 · 316 MW · 29 1 Sept 2016 · 24 MW · 15 2 Sept 2016 · 17 MW · 4 3 Sept 2016 · 25 MW · 5 4 Sept 2016 · 21 MW · 12 5 Sept 2016 · 404 MW · 15 6 Sept 2016 · 604 MW · 60 7 Sept 2016 · 252 MW · 41 8 Sept 2016 · 196 MW · 34 9 Sept 2016 · 96 MW · 14 10 Sept 2016 · 7 MW · 2 12 Sept 2016 · 28 MW · 2 13 Sept 2016 · 8 MW · 5 14 Sept 2016 · 14 MW · 6 15 Sept 2016 · 4 MW · 4
12 Aug 22 Aug 28 Aug 3 Sept 9 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
40km/h · peak gust
35%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 16 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.3% of the area of London (37 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Porto Velho 460,434 inhabitants where it started
    3,689 ha reached on 12 Aug
    0.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
12 Aug 32.9 °C 46 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
13 Aug 35.6 °C 35 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
14 Aug 34.3 °C 48 % 23 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
15 Aug 34.1 °C 51 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
16 Aug 33.4 °C 53 % 21 km/h 1.2 mm High 25
17 Aug 33.7 °C 58 % 25 km/h 3.9 mm Low 6
18 Aug 35.4 °C 53 % 20 km/h 2.1 mm Low 10
19 Aug 33.7 °C 50 % 23 km/h 0.7 mm Low 9
20 Aug 33.4 °C 57 % 23 km/h 18.0 mm Very low 4
21 Aug 31.2 °C 65 % 40 km/h 19.1 mm Very low 2
22 Aug 29.1 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
23 Aug 31.6 °C 43 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
24 Aug 34.9 °C 35 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
25 Aug 35.6 °C 36 % 14 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 13
26 Aug 36.2 °C 37 % 18 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 11
27 Aug 32.2 °C 56 % 22 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 14
28 Aug 31.7 °C 58 % 36 km/h 3.6 mm Moderate 18
29 Aug 33.6 °C 54 % 26 km/h 0.4 mm Very low 3
30 Aug 27.0 °C 80 % 34 km/h 19.0 mm Very low 0
31 Aug 30.9 °C 54 % 22 km/h 1.9 mm Very low 0
1 Sept 31.0 °C 59 % 18 km/h 1.2 mm Very low 0
2 Sept 29.9 °C 76 % 18 km/h 13.4 mm Very low 0
3 Sept 31.8 °C 66 % 22 km/h 7.8 mm Very low 0
4 Sept 24.2 °C 68 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 0
5 Sept 28.9 °C 53 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
6 Sept 30.4 °C 51 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
7 Sept 29.9 °C 54 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
8 Sept 30.8 °C 52 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
9 Sept 32.7 °C 51 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
10 Sept 34.2 °C 49 % 19 km/h 0.1 mm Low 9
11 Sept 35.1 °C 40 % 19 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 12
12 Sept 33.0 °C 55 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 12
13 Sept 32.4 °C 56 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
14 Sept 33.3 °C 55 % 17 km/h 7.4 mm Low 9
15 Sept 31.9 °C 68 % 23 km/h 20.6 mm Very low 0
16 Sept after 30.0 °C 70 % 19 km/h 2.4 mm Very low 0

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 20.7, a minimum humidity of 46% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2017: 35.

FWI at the start 20.7
Minimum humidity 46 %
Days without rain 2
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Nova Mamoré fire, August 2022
3,197 ha 18 days FWI 20.8 Min. humidity 44 % 126 km away, in 2022

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.7 mm on 10 Sept.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

15 days
median duration
4,015 ha
median area
14 %
went past 10,000 ha
2.2 mm
rain at the end (median; 32 of 35 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (3,664 ha against a median of 4,015 ha) and lasted 35 days, against 15 days.

In 3 of 35, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.2 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

2.4 mmfirst rain
16 Septthe day after it ended
40km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 15 Sept, and on 16 Sept 2.4 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 32 of 35, with a median of 2.2 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2017.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Aug 2016
After · 22 Sept 2016

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 · 490Every 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 Porto Velho fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 August 2016 to 15 September 2016 (35 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 August 2016 to 15 September 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,664 hectares (36.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Porto Velho (3,689 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2017 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 35. Their median duration was 15 days and their median area 4,015 ha; 14 % went past 10,000 ha. In 3 of 35, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.2 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 18 August 2016 → 12 August 2016.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 August 2016 to 15 September 2016. 490 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.