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BR · Brazil · –

Rondolândia fire, July 2024 Rondolândia

Out · last detection 30 Jul 2024, 05:12 UTC

The fire started on 18 July 2024 in Rondolândia, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,480 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 626th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1872 with a page). Number 435 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Burnt area
7,480ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
18 Jul 2024 – 30 Jul 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
18 Jul
2024
Heat detections
237
in a single hotspot: 134 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Average daily power
302MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jul30 Jul
30 Jul 2024

How it evolved, day by day

18 Jul 2024 · 284 MW · 27 19 Jul 2024 · 519 MW · 33 20 Jul 2024 · 1,000 MW · 52 21 Jul 2024 · 561 MW · 40 22 Jul 2024 · 338 MW · 29 23 Jul 2024 · 152 MW · 19 24 Jul 2024 · 433 MW · 29 25 Jul 2024 · 25 MW · 4 27 Jul 2024 · 2 MW · 1 28 Jul 2024 · 2 MW · 1 30 Jul 2024 · 3 MW · 2
20 Jul 24 Jul 28 Jul

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
31km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 59 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,100 ha in 2016, 4,282 ha in 2017, 3,995 ha in 2018, 6,321 ha in 2019, 4,602 ha in 2020, 4,530 ha in 2021, 4,240 ha in 2022, 4,526 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,312 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 4.7% of the area of London (75 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
    7,539 ha reached on 18 Jul
    0.6 %

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)
18 Jul 33.4 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Jul 34.0 °C 25 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Jul 34.6 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Jul 35.4 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Jul 34.8 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Jul 34.0 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Jul 34.7 °C 27 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Jul 34.9 °C 29 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Jul 35.6 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Jul 34.6 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Jul 35.0 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Jul 35.8 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Jul 35.7 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Jul after 36.1 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Aug after 36.3 °C 23 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Aug after 36.0 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Aug after 35.3 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Aug after 35.8 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Aug after 35.9 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Aug after 35.3 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Aug after 34.8 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Aug after 36.9 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Aug after 31.5 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 36.5, a minimum humidity of 27% and 59 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2022: 1.

FWI at the start 36.5
Minimum humidity 27 %
Days without rain 59
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Colniza fire, July 2022
5,774 ha 8 days FWI 37.6 Min. humidity 35 % 227 km away, in 2022

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.1 mm on 9 Aug.

What happened to them

Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 1. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.

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

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
31km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 30 Jul, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain.

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 2022.
  • 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 · 11 Jul 2024
After · 6 Aug 2024

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 22 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 83 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 36: 2.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak83 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM10118 µg/m³
Optical depth0.52
16 Jul19 Jul22 Jul25 Jul
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 · 237Every 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 18 July 2024 to 30 July 2024 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 July 2024 to 24 July 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,480 hectares (74.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Rondolândia (7,539 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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 · 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: 24 July 2024 → 30 July 2024.

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 18 July 2024 to 24 July 2024. 237 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.