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Ribeirão Cascalheira fire, 2 September 2021 Ribeirão Cascalheira, Cocalinho

Out · last detection 11 Sept 2021, 16:49 UTC

The fire started on 2 September 2021 in Ribeirão Cascalheira, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,185 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 412th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 144 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Burnt area
11,185ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
2 Sept 2021 – 10 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
2 Sept
2021
Heat detections
381
in a single hotspot: 203 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
8.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Sept10 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

234567891011

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
32km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,783 ha in 2016, 3,037 ha in 2017, 7,568 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,267 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ribeirão Cascalheira 10,089 inhabitants where it started
    11,261 ha reached on 2 Sept
    1.0 %
  2. Cocalinho 6,220 inhabitants
    0 ha
    0.0 %

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)
2 Sept 34.4 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Sept 36.0 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Sept 37.4 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Sept 38.3 °C 25 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Sept 37.5 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Sept 38.5 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Sept 36.3 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Sept 37.0 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Sept 37.5 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Sept after 39.2 °C 25 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Sept after 38.2 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
13 Sept after 37.5 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 43
14 Sept after 37.4 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Sept after 37.7 °C 27 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Sept after 38.5 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Sept after 38.3 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Sept after 37.8 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Sept after 38.8 °C 19 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Sept after 39.5 °C 16 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Sept after 40.1 °C 20 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Aug 2021
After · 17 Sept 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 · 381Every 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 Ribeirão Cascalheira fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 September 2021 and 10 September 2021: 9 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 11,185 hectares (111.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ribeirão Cascalheira (11,261 ha, 1.0 %); Cocalinho (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 32 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
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.