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BR · Brazil · –

Rosário Oeste fire, 1 September 2017 Rosário Oeste, Nobres, Santa Rita do Trivelato

Out · last detection 26 Sept 2017, 17:02 UTC

The fire started on 1 September 2017 in Rosário Oeste, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 48,660 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 44th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1872 with a page). Number 17 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
48,660ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
26days
1 Sept 2017 – 26 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
1 Sept
2017
Heat detections
1,437
in a single hotspot: 252 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
665MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Sept26 Sept
26 Sept 2017

How it evolved, day by day

1 Sept 2017 · 64 MW · 5 2 Sept 2017 · 50 MW · 6 3 Sept 2017 · 56 MW · 5 4 Sept 2017 · 68 MW · 10 5 Sept 2017 · 2,817 MW · 59 6 Sept 2017 · 3,534 MW · 210 7 Sept 2017 · 309 MW · 52 8 Sept 2017 · 167 MW · 43 9 Sept 2017 · 248 MW · 53 10 Sept 2017 · 499 MW · 59 11 Sept 2017 · 768 MW · 67 12 Sept 2017 · 539 MW · 67 13 Sept 2017 · 927 MW · 62 14 Sept 2017 · 1,680 MW · 149 15 Sept 2017 · 907 MW · 131 16 Sept 2017 · 519 MW · 37 17 Sept 2017 · 1,362 MW · 99 18 Sept 2017 · 856 MW · 159 19 Sept 2017 · 1,099 MW · 88 20 Sept 2017 · 69 MW · 20 21 Sept 2017 · 8 MW · 3 22 Sept 2017 · 162 MW · 5 23 Sept 2017 · 454 MW · 34 24 Sept 2017 · 100 MW · 8 25 Sept 2017 · 3 MW · 1 26 Sept 2017 · 26 MW · 5
1 Sept 6 Sept 13 Sept 19 Sept 25 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

38°high
42km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 27 Sept.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 608 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 31% of the area of London (487 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. Rosário Oeste where it started
    40,100 ha reached on 1 Sept
    5.6 %
  2. Nobres 15,492 inhabitants
    8,410 ha reached on 8 Sept
    2.1 %
  3. Santa Rita do Trivelato 3,276 inhabitants
    485 ha reached on 22 Sept
    0.1 %

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 2015
Built-up area0.36 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.36 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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)

Started with Extreme FWI: 46 % of the area in Brazil

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
1 Sept 38.2 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
2 Sept 36.8 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
3 Sept 36.2 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
4 Sept 34.5 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
5 Sept 35.1 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Sept 35.4 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Sept 36.4 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Sept 37.3 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 Sept 37.7 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Sept 37.4 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
11 Sept 37.1 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Sept 37.0 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Sept 36.5 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Sept 36.0 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Sept 36.4 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Sept 31.8 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Sept 32.0 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Sept 36.0 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
19 Sept 36.7 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Sept 36.8 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Sept 34.8 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 45
22 Sept 35.6 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Sept 35.5 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Sept 36.7 °C 34 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Sept 36.3 °C 38 % 24 km/h 1.7 mm High 36
26 Sept 35.1 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.2 mm High 31
27 Sept after 32.3 °C 44 % 24 km/h 1.3 mm High 35

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 55.6, a minimum humidity of 17% and 11 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 34.

FWI at the start 55.6
Minimum humidity 17 %
Days without rain 11
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Primavera do Leste fire, October 2020
3,570 ha 5 days FWI 61.4 Min. humidity 17 % 126 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.1 mm on 10 Oct.

What happened to them

11 days
median duration
5,711 ha
median area
24 %
went past 10,000 ha
2.2 mm
rain at the end (median; 26 of 34 had it)

It was 8.5 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 26 days, against 11 days.

Only 1 of its 34 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 8 of 34, 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 2.2 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

1.3 mmfirst rain
27 Septthe day after it ended
42km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 26 Sept, and on 27 Sept 1.3 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 26 of 34, with a median of 2.2 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 · 25 Aug 2017
After · 3 Oct 2017

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 1,437Every 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 Rosário Oeste fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 1 September 2017 to 26 September 2017 (26 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 September 2017 to 23 September 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 48,660 hectares (486.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Rosário Oeste (40,100 ha, 5.6 %); Nobres (8,410 ha, 2.1 %); Santa Rita do Trivelato (485 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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: 34. Their median duration was 11 days and their median area 5,711 ha; 24 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 1 of its 34 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 8 of 34, 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 2.2 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 23 September 2017 → 26 September 2017.
  2. Start date: 4 September 2017 → 1 September 2017.

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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 4 September 2017 to 23 September 2017. 1,437 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 2015, 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.