Skip to content
worldfires
BR · Brazil · –

Rondolândia fire, 25 August 2022 Rondolândia

Out · last detection 10 Sept 2022, 05:31 UTC

The fire started on 25 August 2022 in Rondolândia, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,318 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1655th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1872 with a page). Number 573 in Brazil in 2022, of 682.

Burnt area
3,318ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
25 Aug 2022 – 10 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
25 Aug
2022
Heat detections
339
in a single hotspot: 170 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Average daily power
238MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Aug10 Sept
10 Sept 2022

How it evolved, day by day

25 Aug 2022 · 2,647 MW · 31 26 Aug 2022 · 413 MW · 102 27 Aug 2022 · 119 MW · 49 28 Aug 2022 · 6 MW · 1 29 Aug 2022 · 55 MW · 5 30 Aug 2022 · 164 MW · 21 31 Aug 2022 · 280 MW · 37 1 Sept 2022 · 174 MW · 48 2 Sept 2022 · 106 MW · 22 3 Sept 2022 · 14 MW · 2 4 Sept 2022 · 7 MW · 1 5 Sept 2022 · 23 MW · 6 6 Sept 2022 · 18 MW · 6 7 Sept 2022 · 6 MW · 2 8 Sept 2022 · 2 MW · 1 9 Sept 2022 · 13 MW · 2 10 Sept 2022 · 6 MW · 3
25 Aug 29 Aug 2 Sept 6 Sept 10 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

36°high
45km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.5 mm on 12 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.1% of the area of London (33 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. Rondolândia 3,505 inhabitants where it started
    3,338 ha reached on 25 Aug
    0.3 %

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 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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.

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)
25 Aug 34.1 °C 35 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Aug 33.9 °C 38 % 21 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
27 Aug 34.2 °C 41 % 20 km/h 0.3 mm High 27
28 Aug 35.7 °C 44 % 22 km/h 1.0 mm High 25
29 Aug 34.1 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Aug 34.9 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
31 Aug 36.2 °C 27 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Sept 35.5 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Sept 35.5 °C 33 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Sept 35.2 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
4 Sept 34.5 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Sept 35.1 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Sept 34.6 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Sept 33.6 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Sept 34.2 °C 43 % 33 km/h 0.6 mm High 35
9 Sept 35.1 °C 45 % 28 km/h 0.4 mm High 26
10 Sept 33.5 °C 45 % 17 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 18
11 Sept after 33.2 °C 50 % 20 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 20
12 Sept after 33.4 °C 46 % 23 km/h 3.5 mm High 22

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 33.6, a minimum humidity of 35% and 6 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 16.

FWI at the start 33.6
Minimum humidity 35 %
Days without rain 6
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Novo Aripuanã fire, September 2020
5,170 ha 19 days FWI 33.2 Min. humidity 32 % 160 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.0 mm on 24 Sept.

What happened to them

14 days
median duration
4,334 ha
median area
12 %
went past 10,000 ha
1.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 15 of 16 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (3,318 ha against a median of 4,334 ha) and lasted 17 days, against 14 days.

In 1 of 16, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.7 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

3.5 mmfirst rain
12 Sept2 days after it ended
45km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 10 Sept, and on 12 Sept 3.5 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 15 of 16, with a median of 1.7 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Aug 2022
After · 17 Sept 2022

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 10 September 2022 the air beside the fire reached 319 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 170: 11 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak319 µg/m³
Days over the guideline19 days
PM10457 µg/m³
Optical depth2.62
23 Aug27 Aug31 Aug4 Sept8 Sept
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 · 339Every 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 Rondolândia fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 25 August 2022 to 10 September 2022 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 August 2022 to 7 September 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,318 hectares (33.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Rondolândia (3,338 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 16. Their median duration was 14 days and their median area 4,334 ha; 12 % went past 10,000 ha. In 1 of 16, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.7 mm.

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. Last day with fire: 7 September 2022 → 10 September 2022.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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 25 August 2022 to 7 September 2022. 339 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 2020, 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.