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Querência fire, April 2023 Querência

Out · last detection 1 Jul 2023, 05:19 UTC

The fire started on 13 April 2023 in Querência, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 80 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,166 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the 1354th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 237 in Brazil in 2023, of 431.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Querência · 2022Querência · 2024

Burnt area
4,166ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
80days
13 Apr 2023 – 1 Jul 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
13 Apr
2023
Heat detections
690
in a single hotspot: 210 MW
Danger at start
0
Very low · FWI index
Average daily power
93MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Apr1 Jul
1 Jul 2023

How it evolved, day by day

13 Apr 2023 · 5 MW · 4 16 Apr 2023 · 39 MW · 4 17 Apr 2023 · 65 MW · 7 18 Apr 2023 · 4 MW · 3 19 Apr 2023 · 7 MW · 3 21 Apr 2023 · 5 MW · 1 22 Apr 2023 · 30 MW · 11 23 Apr 2023 · 13 MW · 6 24 Apr 2023 · 42 MW · 5 25 Apr 2023 · 20 MW · 5 26 Apr 2023 · 69 MW · 7 27 Apr 2023 · 11 MW · 6 28 Apr 2023 · 10 MW · 1 29 Apr 2023 · 8 MW · 4 30 Apr 2023 · 7 MW · 4 2 May 2023 · 13 MW · 3 3 May 2023 · 47 MW · 8 4 May 2023 · 42 MW · 7 5 May 2023 · 5 MW · 3 6 May 2023 · 44 MW · 5 7 May 2023 · 3 MW · 2 8 May 2023 · 29 MW · 5 9 May 2023 · 6 MW · 2 10 May 2023 · 76 MW · 9 11 May 2023 · 861 MW · 58 12 May 2023 · 280 MW · 29 13 May 2023 · 60 MW · 14 14 May 2023 · 6 MW · 3 15 May 2023 · 4 MW · 1 16 May 2023 · 34 MW · 8 17 May 2023 · 37 MW · 6 18 May 2023 · 40 MW · 5 19 May 2023 · 38 MW · 8 20 May 2023 · 306 MW · 15 21 May 2023 · 2,181 MW · 94 22 May 2023 · 105 MW · 18 23 May 2023 · 46 MW · 6 24 May 2023 · 58 MW · 11 25 May 2023 · 20 MW · 5 26 May 2023 · 62 MW · 9 27 May 2023 · 90 MW · 11 28 May 2023 · 3 MW · 2 29 May 2023 · 52 MW · 5 30 May 2023 · 3 MW · 2 1 Jun 2023 · 15 MW · 2 2 Jun 2023 · 35 MW · 6 3 Jun 2023 · 8 MW · 1 4 Jun 2023 · 13 MW · 1 5 Jun 2023 · 17 MW · 3 7 Jun 2023 · 57 MW · 8 8 Jun 2023 · 119 MW · 10 9 Jun 2023 · 105 MW · 13 10 Jun 2023 · 46 MW · 6 11 Jun 2023 · 12 MW · 4 12 Jun 2023 · 40 MW · 9 13 Jun 2023 · 66 MW · 10 14 Jun 2023 · 91 MW · 10 15 Jun 2023 · 50 MW · 11 16 Jun 2023 · 48 MW · 10 17 Jun 2023 · 156 MW · 13 18 Jun 2023 · 17 MW · 6 19 Jun 2023 · 92 MW · 5 20 Jun 2023 · 53 MW · 7 21 Jun 2023 · 82 MW · 13 22 Jun 2023 · 174 MW · 23 23 Jun 2023 · 40 MW · 13 24 Jun 2023 · 147 MW · 19 25 Jun 2023 · 10 MW · 2 26 Jun 2023 · 28 MW · 6 27 Jun 2023 · 116 MW · 10 28 Jun 2023 · 89 MW · 13 29 Jun 2023 · 152 MW · 15 30 Jun 2023 · 128 MW · 15 1 Jul 2023 · 1 MW · 1
13 Apr 27 Apr 9 May 20 May 21 May 1 Jun 13 Jun 24 Jun

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
39km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

65% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,882 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,721 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.6% of the area of London (42 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. Querência 26,769 inhabitants where it started
    4,192 ha reached on 13 Apr
    0.2 %

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 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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)
9 Apr 30.1 °C 64 % 22 km/h 10.7 mm Very low 0
10 Apr 28.6 °C 68 % 18 km/h 16.4 mm Very low 0
11 Apr 27.7 °C 75 % 32 km/h 0.7 mm Very low 0
12 Apr 30.5 °C 64 % 27 km/h 7.5 mm Very low 0
13 Apr 28.9 °C 65 % 29 km/h 2.2 mm Very low 0
14 Apr 30.6 °C 58 % 24 km/h 0.3 mm Very low 1
15 Apr 30.9 °C 58 % 23 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 2
16 Apr 32.0 °C 56 % 23 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 3
17 Apr 32.4 °C 57 % 21 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 4
18 Apr 31.0 °C 62 % 19 km/h 1.5 mm Very low 1
19 Apr 30.6 °C 64 % 24 km/h 2.2 mm Very low 1
20 Apr 30.6 °C 60 % 20 km/h 7.6 mm Very low 0
21 Apr 31.4 °C 58 % 27 km/h 1.7 mm Very low 1
22 Apr 29.9 °C 63 % 35 km/h 13.0 mm Very low 0
23 Apr 29.7 °C 56 % 35 km/h 9.5 mm Very low 0
24 Apr 31.0 °C 55 % 35 km/h 0.3 mm Very low 1
25 Apr 31.1 °C 54 % 35 km/h 1.6 mm Very low 1
26 Apr 32.2 °C 57 % 24 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 3
27 Apr 31.2 °C 53 % 16 km/h 0.1 mm Very low 5
28 Apr 31.8 °C 59 % 18 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 5
29 Apr 32.3 °C 54 % 21 km/h 0.3 mm Low 6
30 Apr 31.5 °C 59 % 20 km/h 1.0 mm Very low 4
1 May 28.4 °C 67 % 27 km/h 2.3 mm Very low 1
2 May 30.8 °C 62 % 23 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 3
3 May 31.5 °C 50 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
4 May 32.7 °C 34 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
5 May 31.3 °C 61 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm Low 9
6 May 33.2 °C 47 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
7 May 33.5 °C 40 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
8 May 32.8 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
9 May 32.6 °C 46 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
10 May 33.4 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
11 May 32.9 °C 43 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
12 May 33.0 °C 41 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
13 May 32.1 °C 43 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
14 May 33.0 °C 36 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
15 May 33.1 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
16 May 32.9 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
17 May 32.7 °C 44 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
18 May 33.0 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
19 May 34.1 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
20 May 33.0 °C 40 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
21 May 33.2 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
22 May 32.9 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 May 32.6 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
24 May 33.1 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
25 May 32.1 °C 46 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 May 33.0 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
27 May 32.5 °C 48 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
28 May 33.0 °C 41 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
29 May 34.1 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
30 May 34.4 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
31 May 31.2 °C 53 % 29 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 16
1 Jun 31.8 °C 51 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 18
2 Jun 32.7 °C 44 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
3 Jun 33.4 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
4 Jun 33.4 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Jun 32.8 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
6 Jun 33.1 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Jun 33.2 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
8 Jun 33.4 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
9 Jun 33.5 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Jun 33.2 °C 42 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Jun 33.4 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
12 Jun 34.3 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.3 mm High 28
13 Jun 31.4 °C 48 % 24 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
14 Jun 29.9 °C 52 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
15 Jun 29.6 °C 52 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
16 Jun 32.0 °C 44 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
17 Jun 32.2 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
18 Jun 32.4 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Jun 33.4 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Jun 33.7 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Jun 33.6 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Jun 33.2 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Jun 32.9 °C 32 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Jun 32.2 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Jun 32.1 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Jun 31.7 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Jun 32.5 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Jun 32.3 °C 36 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Jun 32.9 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Jun 32.9 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Jul 33.0 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Jul after 32.3 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Jul after 32.6 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Jul after 33.0 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Jul after 33.1 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Jul after 32.1 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Jul after 32.3 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Jul after 32.9 °C 34 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Jul after 34.0 °C 30 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Jul after 34.4 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Jul after 34.8 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Apr 2023
After · 8 Jul 2023

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 1 May 2023 the air beside the fire reached 70 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 28: 1.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak70 µg/m³
Days over the guideline20 days
PM10101 µg/m³
Optical depth0.70
1415161718192021222324252627282930123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829301234
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 690Every 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 Querência fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 13 April 2023 to 1 July 2023 (80 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 April 2023 to 1 July 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,166 hectares (41.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Querência (4,192 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.

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: 16 April 2023 → 13 April 2023.

RSS Changes to this page

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 16 April 2023 to 1 July 2023. 690 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 2025, 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.