Ribeirão Cascalheira fire, 16 August 2026 Ribeirão Cascalheira
The fire started on 16 August 2026 in Ribeirão Cascalheira, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,131 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 715th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 207 in Brazil in 2026, of 747.
The power measured by the satellite is low (23.7 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
- 7,131ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 16 Aug 2026 – 25 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 16 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 94
- in a single hotspot: 24 MW
- Danger at start
- 57
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 541MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 39 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,294 ha in 2016, 4,770 ha in 2017, 2,371 ha in 2018, 2,513 ha in 2019, 3,352 ha in 2020, 4,288 ha in 2021, 2,770 ha in 2022, 2,158 ha in 2023, 5,756 ha in 2024, 751 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,153 ha that had burned before.
- 5,756 ha Ribeirão Cascalheira fire, August 2024 116,965 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,151 ha Canarana fire, August 2017 32,120 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,352 ha Canarana fire, September 2020 31,942 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,770 ha Ribeirão Cascalheira fire, September 2022 24,355 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,237 ha Ribeirão Cascalheira fire, August 2016 27,401 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,543 ha Canarana fire, August 2021 33,917 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,527 ha Ribeirão Cascalheira fire, August 2018 20,870 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,230 ha Ribeirão Cascalheira fire, August 2019 15,863 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
7,185 ha reached on 16 Aug0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Aug | 38.8 °C | 15 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 17 Aug | 36.9 °C | 20 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 18 Aug | 35.5 °C | 25 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 19 Aug | 37.0 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 20 Aug | 38.2 °C | 19 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 21 Aug | 37.6 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 22 Aug | 37.8 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 23 Aug | 38.1 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 24 Aug | 39.0 °C | 18 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 25 Aug | 40.0 °C | 17 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 26 Aug after | 40.0 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 27 Aug after | 39.1 °C | 19 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 28 Aug after | 39.2 °C | 19 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 29 Aug after | 40.5 °C | 16 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 30 Aug after | 40.1 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 31 Aug after | 40.0 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 1 Sept after | 41.2 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 2 Sept after | 37.0 °C | 34 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 3 Sept after | 38.0 °C | 29 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 4 Sept after | 38.2 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 46 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 27 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 138 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 76: 5.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 94Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 32,120 haCanaranaAugust 2017 · 13 days · 11 km away
- 31,942 haCanaranaSeptember 2020 · 15 days · 11 km away
- 33,917 haCanarana13 August 2021 · 20 days · 13 km away
- 26,986 haRibeirão CascalheiraSeptember 2026 · 18 days · 15 km away
- 27,401 haRibeirão Cascalheira5 August 2016 · 17 days · 17 km away
- 116,965 haRibeirão Cascalheira10 August 2024 · 51 days · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ribeirão Cascalheira fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 August 2026 and 25 August 2026: 10 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 7,131 hectares (71.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ribeirão Cascalheira (7,185 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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
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
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.