How long did the Sapezal fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 August 2024 and 13 September 2024: 41 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 96,162 hectares (961.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sapezal (65,734 ha, 4.8 %); Tangará da Serra (29,129 ha, 2.5 %); Campo Novo do Parecis (2,056 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.

BR · Brazil · 2024-08-04 → 2024-09-13

Sapezal fire, 4 August 2024 Sapezal, Tangará da Serra, Campo Novo do Parecis

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2024, 18:23 UTC

The fire started on 4 August 2024 in Sapezal, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 41 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 96,162 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 18th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 22 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Sapezal · 2016 Sapezal · 2023 Tangará da Serra · 2020 Sapezal · 2024

Burnt area: 96,162ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 41days; 4 Aug 2024 – 13 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit: 3; municipalities
Started on: 4 Aug; 2024
Heat detections: 3,737; in a single hotspot: 0 MW
Danger at start: 51; Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power: 2.3GW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Aug13 Sept

Play back 14 Sept 2024

How it evolved, day by day

4 Aug 10 Aug 16 Aug 21 Aug 22 Aug 28 Aug 3 Sept 9 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

36°high

55km/h · peak gust

14%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

15% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,820 ha in 2016, 501 ha in 2017, 1,507 ha in 2018, 905 ha in 2020, 3,419 ha in 2021, 1,987 ha in 2022, 815 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,128 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 61% of the area of London (962 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

Sapezal 28,944 inhabitants where it started

65,734 ha

4.8 %
Tangará da Serra 106,434 inhabitants

29,129 ha

2.5 %
Campo Novo do Parecis 45,899 inhabitants

2,056 ha

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 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)
4 Aug	32.9 °C	23 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
5 Aug	32.0 °C	22 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
6 Aug	31.5 °C	18 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
7 Aug	31.6 °C	25 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
8 Aug	31.4 °C	30 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
9 Aug	20.3 °C	60 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
10 Aug	25.8 °C	28 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
11 Aug	30.5 °C	22 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
12 Aug	28.1 °C	21 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
13 Aug	30.9 °C	17 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
14 Aug	33.6 °C	19 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
15 Aug	34.5 °C	22 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
16 Aug	33.0 °C	32 %	35 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 40
17 Aug	34.7 °C	24 %	32 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 39
18 Aug	35.3 °C	15 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
19 Aug	34.8 °C	21 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
20 Aug	35.1 °C	15 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
21 Aug	34.7 °C	17 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
22 Aug	34.3 °C	21 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
23 Aug	34.1 °C	24 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
24 Aug	29.0 °C	43 %	44 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 41
25 Aug	21.4 °C	47 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
26 Aug	26.9 °C	27 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
27 Aug	31.9 °C	22 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
28 Aug	34.2 °C	18 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
29 Aug	35.4 °C	19 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
30 Aug	34.2 °C	18 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
31 Aug	34.4 °C	18 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
1 Sept	33.1 °C	25 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
2 Sept	34.4 °C	16 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
3 Sept	35.3 °C	20 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
4 Sept	33.9 °C	28 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
5 Sept	30.6 °C	33 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
6 Sept	34.7 °C	14 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
7 Sept	35.4 °C	16 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
8 Sept	35.4 °C	15 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
9 Sept	36.2 °C	15 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
10 Sept	35.7 °C	17 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
11 Sept	34.2 °C	25 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
12 Sept	34.6 °C	25 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
13 Sept	34.8 °C	27 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
14 Sept after	33.3 °C	31 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
15 Sept after	29.9 °C	41 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
16 Sept after	29.1 °C	46 %	41 km/h	0.6 mm	High 32
17 Sept after	33.8 °C	30 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
18 Sept after	35.2 °C	29 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
19 Sept after	33.3 °C	37 %	44 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 44
20 Sept after	34.9 °C	31 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
21 Sept after	35.8 °C	24 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
22 Sept after	35.4 °C	26 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
23 Sept after	35.8 °C	27 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

↔

Before · 28 Jul 2024

After · 20 Sept 2024

Before After

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 9 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 232 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 144: 9.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak232 µg/m³

Days over the guideline33 days

PM10332 µg/m³

Optical depth4.19

WHO 15

234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112345678910111213141516

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 · 0Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Sapezal fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 August 2024 and 13 September 2024: 41 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 96,162 hectares (961.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sapezal (65,734 ha, 4.8 %); Tangará da Serra (29,129 ha, 2.5 %); Campo Novo do Parecis (2,056 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.

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 ›

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page · 4 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

27 October 2026 Last day with fire: 17 September 2024 → 13 September 2024.
27 October 2026 Start date: 31 July 2024 → 4 August 2024.
25 October 2026 Last day with fire: 13 September 2024 → 17 September 2024.
25 October 2026 Start date: 4 August 2024 → 31 July 2024.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

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Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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; 5 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No 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.

Where it burned