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BR · Brazil · –

Seringueiras fire, September 2019 Seringueiras, São Miguel do Guaporé

Out · last detection 18 Sept 2019, 18:05 UTC

The fire started on 3 September 2019 in Seringueiras, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,814 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 32th largest in Rondônia since 2016 (of 288 with a page). Number 123 in Brazil in 2019, of 973.

Burnt area
11,814ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
3 Sept 2019 – 18 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
3 Sept
2019
Heat detections
907
in a single hotspot: 255 MW
Danger at start
5
Very low · FWI index
Average daily power
1.5GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Sept18 Sept
18 Sept 2019

How it evolved, day by day

3 Sept 2019 · 116 MW · 11 4 Sept 2019 · 8 MW · 1 5 Sept 2019 · 3,371 MW · 152 6 Sept 2019 · 8,618 MW · 358 7 Sept 2019 · 2,849 MW · 128 8 Sept 2019 · 1,448 MW · 140 9 Sept 2019 · 1,550 MW · 80 10 Sept 2019 · 138 MW · 23 11 Sept 2019 · 26 MW · 5 12 Sept 2019 · 55 MW · 4 15 Sept 2019 · 29 MW · 4 18 Sept 2019 · 4 MW · 1
3 Sept 6 Sept 9 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

37°high
36km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.0 mm on 19 Sept.

This area had burned before

24% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,787 ha in 2016, 1,678 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,797 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 7.5% of the area of London (118 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. Seringueiras 12,060 inhabitants where it started
    11,864 ha reached on 3 Sept
    3.1 %
  2. 27 ha
    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 2020
Built-up area0.98 ha
Residents≈ 70

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.98 hectares of built-up land and about 70 residents (GHSL 2020, 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)
3 Sept 32.0 °C 55 % 26 km/h 1.5 mm Very low 5
4 Sept 33.1 °C 50 % 26 km/h 0.3 mm Low 11
5 Sept 33.9 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
6 Sept 35.0 °C 37 % 21 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 18
7 Sept 34.5 °C 44 % 26 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 16
8 Sept 36.4 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
9 Sept 37.3 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
10 Sept 35.7 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
11 Sept 36.2 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
12 Sept 35.6 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
13 Sept 33.5 °C 39 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
14 Sept 35.7 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
15 Sept 36.9 °C 36 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
16 Sept 37.3 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
17 Sept 37.1 °C 37 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
18 Sept 36.8 °C 38 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Sept after 31.9 °C 59 % 34 km/h 6.0 mm Very low 4

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 4.9, a minimum humidity of 55% and rain the day before. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 29.

FWI at the start 4.9
Minimum humidity 55 %
Days without rain 0
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Baures fire, October 2019
3,087 ha 3 days FWI 4.1 Min. humidity 55 % 173 km away, in 2019

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.2 mm on 1 Nov.

What happened to them

8 days
median duration
4,004 ha
median area
7 %
went past 10,000 ha
4.2 mm
rain at the end (median; 29 of 29 had it)

It was 3.0 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 16 days, against 8 days.

Only 2 of its 29 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. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 4.2 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

6.0 mmfirst rain
19 Septthe day after it ended
36km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 18 Sept, and on 19 Sept 6.0 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 29 of 29, with a median of 4.2 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 · 27 Aug 2019
After · 25 Sept 2019

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 · 907Every 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 Seringueiras fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 3 September 2019 to 18 September 2019 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 3 September 2019 to 12 September 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 11,814 hectares (118.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Seringueiras (11,864 ha, 3.1 %); São Miguel do Guaporé (27 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, class High.
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: 29. Their median duration was 8 days and their median area 4,004 ha; 7 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 2 of its 29 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. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 4.2 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 12 September 2019 → 18 September 2019.

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.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 3 September 2019 to 12 September 2019. 907 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 2020, 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.