How long did the Poxoréu fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 August 2017 and 23 September 2017: 26 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 22,473 hectares (224.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Poxoréu (20,919 ha, 3.0 %); Tesouro (1,705 ha, 0.4 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, class Extreme.

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.

BR · Brazil · 2017-08-29 → 2017-09-23

Poxoréu fire, 29 August 2017 Poxoréu, Tesouro

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2017, 16:17 UTC

The fire started on 29 August 2017 in Poxoréu, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 22,473 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 167th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 59 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area: 22,473ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 26days; 29 Aug 2017 – 23 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 29 Aug; 2017
Heat detections: 753; in a single hotspot: 67 MW
Danger at start: 38; High · FWI index
Energy released: 6.3GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Sept 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Aug23 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2930311234567891011121314151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

37°high

45km/h · peak gust

14%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 28 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Poxoréu 23,283 inhabitants where it started

20,919 ha reached on 28 Aug

3.0 %
Tesouro 3,025 inhabitants

1,705 ha reached on 4 Sept

0.4 %

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)
28 Aug	35.8 °C	22 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
29 Aug	36.8 °C	20 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
30 Aug	36.8 °C	23 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
31 Aug	36.0 °C	19 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
1 Sept	37.0 °C	14 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
2 Sept	35.3 °C	20 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
3 Sept	34.1 °C	24 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
4 Sept	33.5 °C	28 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
5 Sept	34.0 °C	20 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
6 Sept	33.7 °C	22 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
7 Sept	35.1 °C	27 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
8 Sept	36.1 °C	28 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
9 Sept	36.5 °C	22 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
10 Sept	36.2 °C	22 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
11 Sept	36.4 °C	22 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
12 Sept	36.7 °C	25 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
13 Sept	35.7 °C	24 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
14 Sept	35.7 °C	21 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
15 Sept	36.1 °C	23 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
16 Sept	33.3 °C	28 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
17 Sept	32.7 °C	24 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
18 Sept	35.1 °C	24 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
19 Sept	36.2 °C	22 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
20 Sept	35.7 °C	26 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
21 Sept	33.0 °C	28 %	41 km/h	0.5 mm	Very high 38
22 Sept	33.5 °C	34 %	35 km/h	0.5 mm	Very high 39
23 Sept	34.5 °C	29 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
24 Sept after	35.9 °C	29 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
25 Sept after	36.2 °C	29 %	27 km/h	0.2 mm	High 35
26 Sept after	34.7 °C	31 %	24 km/h	0.6 mm	High 30
27 Sept after	29.0 °C	45 %	33 km/h	0.2 mm	High 30
28 Sept after	29.5 °C	55 %	36 km/h	1.5 mm	Moderate 13

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 22 Aug 2017

After · 30 Sept 2017

Before After

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 · 753Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Poxoréu fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 August 2017 and 23 September 2017: 26 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 22,473 hectares (224.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Poxoréu (20,919 ha, 3.0 %); Tesouro (1,705 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, class Extreme.
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

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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.

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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.

Where it burned