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BR · Brazil · –

Rondonópolis fire, September 2024 Poxoréu, Rondonópolis

Out · last detection 12 Sept 2024, 04:48 UTC

The fire started on 8 September 2024 in Rondonópolis, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,980 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 347th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1872 with a page). Number 257 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Burnt area
11,980ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
8 Sept 2024 – 12 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
8 Sept
2024
Heat detections
446
in a single hotspot: 234 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
2.2GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Sept12 Sept
12 Sept 2024

How it evolved, day by day

8 Sept 2024 · 1,838 MW · 23 9 Sept 2024 · 3,821 MW · 149 10 Sept 2024 · 5,174 MW · 216 11 Sept 2024 · 140 MW · 53 12 Sept 2024 · 8 MW · 5
8 Sept 9 Sept 10 Sept 11 Sept 12 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

39°high
37km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

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

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 7.6% of the area of London (120 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. Poxoréu 23,283 inhabitants
    7,641 ha reached on 8 Sept
    1.1 %
  2. Rondonópolis 244,911 inhabitants where it started
    4,413 ha reached on 8 Sept
    0.9 %

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 area2.7 ha
Residents≈ 100

Inside the perimeter there were about 2.7 hectares of built-up land and about 100 residents (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)

Started with Very dry air: 6.4 % of the area in Brazil 60 days without rain: 55 % of the area in Brazil

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
8 Sept 38.8 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Sept 38.0 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
10 Sept 38.5 °C 4 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
11 Sept 38.7 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
12 Sept 38.7 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Sept after 39.3 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Sept after 38.7 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
15 Sept after 37.4 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Sept after 33.3 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Sept after 36.9 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Sept after 40.3 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Sept after 37.6 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Sept after 39.0 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Sept after 37.7 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Sept after 40.5 °C 13 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 54.3, a minimum humidity of 12% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 44.

FWI at the start 54.3
Minimum humidity 12 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Pedra Preta fire, September 2020
19,303 ha 7 days FWI 54.8 Min. humidity 12 % 80 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.0 mm on 21 Sept.

What happened to them

10 days
median duration
6,430 ha
median area
34 %
went past 10,000 ha
3.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 22 of 44 had it)

It was 1.9 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 5 days, against 10 days.

Only 11 of its 44 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 22 of 44, 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 3.0 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

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
37km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 12 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 22 of 44, with a median of 3.0 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 · 1 Sept 2024
After · 19 Sept 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 10 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 98 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 64: 4.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak98 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM10139 µg/m³
Optical depth1.66
6 Sept8 Sept10 Sept12 Sept14 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 · 446Every 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 Rondonópolis fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 September 2024 and 12 September 2024: 5 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 11,980 hectares (119.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Poxoréu (7,641 ha, 1.1 %); Rondonópolis (4,413 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.
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: 44. Their median duration was 10 days and their median area 6,430 ha; 34 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 11 of its 44 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 22 of 44, 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 3.0 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 446 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.