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Tesouro fire, August 2017 Tesouro

Out · last detection 7 Sept 2017, 05:25 UTC

The fire started on 25 August 2017 in Tesouro, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,780 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 914th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 375 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

The power measured by the satellite is low (24.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
5,780ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
25 Aug 2017 – 7 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
25 Aug
2017
Heat detections
187
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Aug7 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

25262728293031123467

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
45km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 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. Tesouro 3,025 inhabitants where it started
    5,815 ha reached on 25 Aug
    1.4 %

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)
25 Aug 34.5 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Aug 35.4 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Aug 36.3 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Aug 36.4 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Aug 37.4 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Aug 37.4 °C 23 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Aug 36.5 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Sept 37.6 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Sept 35.8 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
3 Sept 34.7 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Sept 34.1 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Sept 34.5 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Sept 34.3 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Sept 35.7 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Sept after 36.7 °C 28 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Sept after 37.0 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Sept after 36.8 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Sept after 37.0 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
12 Sept after 37.2 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Sept after 36.2 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Sept after 36.3 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Sept after 36.7 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Sept after 33.8 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Sept after 33.3 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Aug 2017
After · 14 Sept 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 · 187Every 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 Tesouro fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 August 2017 and 7 September 2017: 14 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 5,780 hectares (57.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tesouro (5,815 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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
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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.

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.