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Sinop fire, July 2018 Sinop, Cláudia

Out · last detection 16 Jul 2018, 17:08 UTC

The fire started on 9 July 2018 in Sinop, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,877 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 1469th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 172 in Brazil in 2018, of 291.

Burnt area
3,877ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
9 Jul 2018 – 16 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
9 Jul
2018
Heat detections
156
in a single hotspot: 340 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Jul 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Jul16 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

910111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
37km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 44 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Sinop 196,312 inhabitants where it started
    2,364 ha reached on 3 Jul
    0.6 %
  2. Cláudia 9,593 inhabitants
    1,535 ha reached on 5 Jul
    0.4 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

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 Jul 30.5 °C 38 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
4 Jul 32.5 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Jul 33.0 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Jul 31.4 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Jul 31.1 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Jul 31.5 °C 40 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Jul 29.3 °C 49 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Jul 25.6 °C 53 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
11 Jul 28.8 °C 47 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
12 Jul 32.8 °C 36 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
13 Jul 33.3 °C 41 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
14 Jul 32.8 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Jul 32.9 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Jul 32.0 °C 35 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Jul after 32.0 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Jul after 31.7 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Jul after 31.7 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Jul after 32.6 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Jul after 30.8 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Jul after 32.1 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Jul after 32.4 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Jul after 32.0 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Jul after 31.1 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Jul after 30.7 °C 38 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Jul after 32.4 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Jul after 34.1 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Jul after 34.9 °C 29 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Jul after 33.9 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Jul 2018
After · 23 Jul 2018

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 · 156Every 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 Sinop fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 July 2018 and 16 July 2018: 8 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 3,877 hectares (38.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sinop (2,364 ha, 0.6 %); Cláudia (1,535 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.

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

Satellite cross-check

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.

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.