How long did the Ribeirão Cascalheira fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 August 2026 to 30 September 2026 (42 days). The perimeter dates it from 23 August 2026 to 30 September 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 52,070 hectares (520.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Ribeirão Cascalheira (47,934 ha, 4.2 %); Cocalinho (4,170 ha, 0.2 %); Canarana (351 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 41.4 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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 · 2026-08-20 → 2026-09-30

Ribeirão Cascalheira fire, 20 August 2026 Ribeirão Cascalheira, Cocalinho, Canarana

Out · last detection 30 Sept 2026, 17:07 UTC

The fire started on 20 August 2026 in Ribeirão Cascalheira, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 42 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 52,070 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 45th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 6 in Brazil in 2026, of 769.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Ribeirão Cascalheira · 2024 Ribeirão Cascalheira · 2016 Ribeirão Cascalheira · 2023 Ribeirão Cascalheira · 2016

Burnt area: 52,070ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 42days; 20 Aug 2026 – 30 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit: 3; municipalities
Started on: 20 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 999; in a single hotspot: 200 MW
Danger at start: 41; Very high · FWI index
Average daily power: 362MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Aug30 Sept

Play back 30 Sept 2026

How it evolved, day by day

20 Aug 26 Aug 1 Sept 8 Sept 15 Sept 21 Sept 28 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

41°high

45km/h · peak gust

17%lowest humidity

It had gone 34 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

81% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 19,622 ha in 2016, 5,142 ha in 2017, 6,032 ha in 2018, 6,722 ha in 2019, 7,961 ha in 2020, 3,509 ha in 2021, 6,716 ha in 2022, 10,314 ha in 2023, 17,976 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 42,013 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 33% of the area of London (521 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

Ribeirão Cascalheira 10,089 inhabitants where it started

47,934 ha reached on 23 Aug

4.2 %
Cocalinho 6,220 inhabitants

4,170 ha reached on 19 Sept

0.2 %
Canarana

351 ha reached on 20 Aug

0.0 %

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)
20 Aug	38.5 °C	19 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
21 Aug	38.2 °C	22 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
22 Aug	38.7 °C	21 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
23 Aug	38.7 °C	17 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
24 Aug	39.5 °C	17 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
25 Aug	40.0 °C	19 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
26 Aug	39.8 °C	17 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
27 Aug	39.2 °C	19 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
28 Aug	38.8 °C	19 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
29 Aug	40.7 °C	17 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
30 Aug	40.1 °C	19 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
31 Aug	40.3 °C	22 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
1 Sept	41.4 °C	17 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
2 Sept	37.7 °C	32 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
3 Sept	38.7 °C	28 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
4 Sept	38.6 °C	30 %	41 km/h	0.4 mm	Very high 49
5 Sept	36.3 °C	36 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
6 Sept	35.7 °C	37 %	20 km/h	0.9 mm	High 27
7 Sept	34.3 °C	47 %	32 km/h	0.2 mm	High 32
8 Sept	33.2 °C	52 %	27 km/h	1.4 mm	Moderate 16
9 Sept	34.0 °C	44 %	23 km/h	1.3 mm	Moderate 17
10 Sept	36.3 °C	35 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
11 Sept	38.5 °C	22 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
12 Sept	39.0 °C	20 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
13 Sept	39.5 °C	19 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
14 Sept	39.2 °C	23 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
15 Sept	38.9 °C	25 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
16 Sept	39.1 °C	27 %	30 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 47
17 Sept	39.5 °C	27 %	27 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 47
18 Sept	38.7 °C	20 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
19 Sept	38.2 °C	20 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
20 Sept	38.2 °C	22 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
21 Sept	39.0 °C	21 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
22 Sept	39.8 °C	22 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
23 Sept	36.5 °C	35 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
24 Sept	39.5 °C	26 %	27 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 42
25 Sept	39.1 °C	28 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
26 Sept	37.5 °C	32 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
27 Sept	39.3 °C	28 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
28 Sept	41.3 °C	21 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
29 Sept	40.0 °C	25 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
30 Sept	39.8 °C	23 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
1 Oct after	39.8 °C	26 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 13 Aug 2026

After · 7 Oct 2026

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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 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).

PM2.5 peak138 µg/m³

Days over the guideline25 days

PM10140 µg/m³

Optical depth1.40

WHO 15

18192021222324252627282930311234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829301

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 · 999Every 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 Ribeirão Cascalheira fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 August 2026 to 30 September 2026 (42 days). The perimeter dates it from 23 August 2026 to 30 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 52,070 hectares (520.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Ribeirão Cascalheira (47,934 ha, 4.2 %); Cocalinho (4,170 ha, 0.2 %); Canarana (351 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 41.4 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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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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What really happened?

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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; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 23 August 2026 to 30 September 2026. 999 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.

Where it burned