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Santo Antônio do Leverger fire, 2 September 2017 Santo Antônio do Leverger, Barão de Melgaço, Itiquira

Out · last detection 27 Sept 2017, 16:42 UTC

The fire started on 2 September 2017 in Santo Antônio do Leverger, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 36,756 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 72th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1872 with a page). Number 24 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
36,756ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
26days
2 Sept 2017 – 27 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
2 Sept
2017
Heat detections
1,558
in a single hotspot: 176 MW
Danger at start
60
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
685MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Sept27 Sept
27 Sept 2017

How it evolved, day by day

2 Sept 2017 · 85 MW · 9 3 Sept 2017 · 101 MW · 24 4 Sept 2017 · 78 MW · 20 5 Sept 2017 · 71 MW · 17 6 Sept 2017 · 44 MW · 6 7 Sept 2017 · 125 MW · 18 8 Sept 2017 · 641 MW · 64 9 Sept 2017 · 283 MW · 33 10 Sept 2017 · 377 MW · 25 11 Sept 2017 · 27 MW · 5 12 Sept 2017 · 287 MW · 26 13 Sept 2017 · 1,323 MW · 65 14 Sept 2017 · 1,608 MW · 124 15 Sept 2017 · 1,024 MW · 125 16 Sept 2017 · 327 MW · 92 17 Sept 2017 · 266 MW · 57 18 Sept 2017 · 1,980 MW · 109 19 Sept 2017 · 1,426 MW · 171 20 Sept 2017 · 3,029 MW · 150 21 Sept 2017 · 3,127 MW · 175 22 Sept 2017 · 290 MW · 35 23 Sept 2017 · 177 MW · 36 24 Sept 2017 · 467 MW · 84 25 Sept 2017 · 444 MW · 55 26 Sept 2017 · 135 MW · 21 27 Sept 2017 · 73 MW · 12
2 Sept 8 Sept 14 Sept 21 Sept 26 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
45km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.5 mm on 28 Sept.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 149 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 23% of the area of London (368 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. Santo Antônio do Leverger 650,877 inhabitants where it started
    34,299 ha reached on 2 Sept
    3.6 %
  2. Barão de Melgaço 15,246 inhabitants
    2,488 ha reached on 22 Sept
    0.2 %
  3. Itiquira 12,236 inhabitants
    300 ha reached on 21 Sept
    0.0 %

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 area0.43 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.43 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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
2 Sept 37.9 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
3 Sept 37.1 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
4 Sept 36.7 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Sept 36.7 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Sept 35.6 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Sept 37.2 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Sept 38.2 °C 29 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 Sept 39.3 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 Sept 38.7 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
11 Sept 34.7 °C 40 % 33 km/h 2.2 mm High 32
12 Sept 37.4 °C 34 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
13 Sept 38.5 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
14 Sept 38.2 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 Sept 39.4 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Sept 30.5 °C 44 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Sept 30.9 °C 45 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
18 Sept 37.4 °C 23 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Sept 38.9 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Sept 38.5 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
21 Sept 38.4 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Sept 36.7 °C 30 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
23 Sept 36.9 °C 28 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Sept 37.0 °C 33 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Sept 38.7 °C 29 % 22 km/h 1.4 mm Very high 40
26 Sept 37.4 °C 33 % 19 km/h 0.6 mm High 31
27 Sept 34.7 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
28 Sept after 32.4 °C 56 % 18 km/h 5.5 mm Moderate 20

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 60.4, a minimum humidity of 21% and 12 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 19.

FWI at the start 60.4
Minimum humidity 21 %
Days without rain 12
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Chapada dos Guimarães fire, September 2019
15,606 ha 12 days FWI 61.7 Min. humidity 20 % 209 km away, in 2019

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.6 mm on 24 Sept.

What happened to them

10 days
median duration
5,820 ha
median area
26 %
went past 10,000 ha
1.8 mm
rain at the end (median; 15 of 19 had it)

It was 6.3 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 26 days, against 10 days.

Only 1 of its 19 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 4 of 19, 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

5.5 mmfirst rain
28 Septthe day after it ended
45km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 27 Sept, and on 28 Sept 5.5 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 15 of 19, 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 · 26 Aug 2017
After · 4 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 · 1,558Every 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 Santo Antônio do Leverger fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 September 2017 and 27 September 2017: 26 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 36,756 hectares (367.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Santo Antônio do Leverger (34,299 ha, 3.6 %); Barão de Melgaço (2,488 ha, 0.2 %); Itiquira (300 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.4 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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: 19. Their median duration was 10 days and their median area 5,820 ha; 26 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 1 of its 19 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 4 of 19, 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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 1,558 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.