Sonora fire, September 2020 Sonora, Itiquira
The fire started on 30 September 2020 in Sonora, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,882 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 97th largest in Mato Grosso do Sul since 2016 (of 506 with a page). Number 136 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.
- Burnt area
- 12,882ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 30 Sept 2020 – 4 Oct 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 30 Sept
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 468
- in a single hotspot: 199 MW
- Danger at start
- 61
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 7.9GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months 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
-
11,376 ha reached on 30 Sept2.7 %
-
Itiquira 12,236 inhabitants1,583 ha reached on 2 Oct0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Sept | 41.3 °C | 8 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 1 Oct | 40.9 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 2 Oct | 39.5 °C | 18 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 3 Oct | 40.1 °C | 17 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 4 Oct | 41.2 °C | 14 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 5 Oct after | 41.1 °C | 15 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 6 Oct after | 40.8 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 7 Oct after | 38.9 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 8 Oct after | 40.5 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 9 Oct after | 40.0 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 10 Oct after | 38.5 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 11 Oct after | 34.8 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 12 Oct after | 34.0 °C | 38 % | 20 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 26 |
| 13 Oct after | 37.6 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 14 Oct after | 38.4 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 468Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sonora fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 September 2020 and 4 October 2020: 5 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 12,882 hectares (128.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sonora (11,376 ha, 2.7 %); Itiquira (1,583 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.3 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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
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
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.