Skip to content
worldfires
BR · Brazil · –

Rosário Oeste fire, 17 August 2024 Rosário Oeste, Nobres, Santa Rita do Trivelato

Out · last detection 29 Aug 2024, 16:43 UTC

The fire started on 17 August 2024 in Rosário Oeste, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 44,807 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 53th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1872 with a page). Number 53 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Burnt area
44,807ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
17 Aug 2024 – 29 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
17 Aug
2024
Heat detections
1,767
in a single hotspot: 152 MW
Danger at start
61
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
1.4GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Aug29 Aug
29 Aug 2024

How it evolved, day by day

17 Aug 2024 · 1,358 MW · 86 18 Aug 2024 · 1,114 MW · 113 19 Aug 2024 · 3,616 MW · 302 20 Aug 2024 · 2,800 MW · 190 21 Aug 2024 · 967 MW · 172 22 Aug 2024 · 990 MW · 110 23 Aug 2024 · 687 MW · 104 24 Aug 2024 · 1,409 MW · 108 25 Aug 2024 · 1,457 MW · 154 26 Aug 2024 · 1,176 MW · 145 27 Aug 2024 · 565 MW · 137 28 Aug 2024 · 2,096 MW · 82 29 Aug 2024 · 430 MW · 64
19 Aug 23 Aug 26 Aug 29 Aug

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

37°high
45km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 199 ha in 2016, 24,063 ha in 2017, 915 ha in 2019, 27,916 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 35,759 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 28% of the area of London (448 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
    42,228 ha reached on 17 Aug
    5.9 %
  2. Nobres 15,492 inhabitants
    1,607 ha reached on 24 Aug
    0.4 %
  3. Santa Rita do Trivelato 3,276 inhabitants
    1,132 ha reached on 26 Aug
    0.2 %

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 area0.82 ha
Residents≈ 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.82 hectares of built-up land and about 20 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 Extreme FWI: 46 % of the area in Brazil 60 days without rain: 55 % of the area in Brazil

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
17 Aug 36.9 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
18 Aug 37.0 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
19 Aug 36.8 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
20 Aug 36.5 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
21 Aug 36.3 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
22 Aug 36.7 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
23 Aug 37.4 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 Aug 34.9 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Aug 26.4 °C 49 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Aug 30.1 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Aug 35.0 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Aug 37.0 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
29 Aug 35.7 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
30 Aug after 35.6 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
31 Aug after 37.1 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
1 Sept after 36.9 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
2 Sept after 36.6 °C 11 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
3 Sept after 37.2 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
4 Sept after 37.6 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
5 Sept after 36.6 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Sept after 37.1 °C 9 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 Sept after 37.9 °C 6 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
8 Sept after 37.5 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 60.8, a minimum humidity of 15% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 28.

FWI at the start 60.8
Minimum humidity 15 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Rosário Oeste fire, September 2020
58,215 ha 20 days FWI 58.3 Min. humidity 15 % 33 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.1 mm on 21 Sept.

What happened to them

12 days
median duration
4,636 ha
median area
21 %
went past 10,000 ha
1.8 mm
rain at the end (median; 16 of 28 had it)

It was 9.7 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 13 days, against 12 days.

Only 2 of its 28 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 12 of 28, 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 1.8 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
45km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 29 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 16 of 28, with a median of 1.8 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 · 10 Aug 2024
After · 5 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 25 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 70 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 28: 1.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak70 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM10100 µg/m³
Optical depth1.11
14 Aug18 Aug22 Aug26 Aug30 Aug
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 · 1,767Every 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?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 August 2024 and 29 August 2024: 13 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 44,807 hectares (448.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Rosário Oeste (42,228 ha, 5.9 %); Nobres (1,607 ha, 0.4 %); Santa Rita do Trivelato (1,132 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, 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: 28. Their median duration was 12 days and their median area 4,636 ha; 21 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 2 of its 28 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 12 of 28, 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 1.8 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. 1,767 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.