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Tesouro fire, September 2020 Poxoréu, Tesouro, Guiratinga

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2020, 16:42 UTC

The fire started on 5 September 2020 in Tesouro, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 44,944 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 57th largest in Mato Grosso since 2016 (of 1996 with a page). Number 28 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area
44,944ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
5 Sept 2020 – 19 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
5 Sept
2020
Heat detections
1,612
in a single hotspot: 523 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
25.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Sept19 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

5678910111213141516171819

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
48km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

46% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,900 ha in 2016, 17,574 ha in 2017, 182 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Poxoréu 23,283 inhabitants
    31,136 ha reached on 10 Sept
    4.5 %
  2. Tesouro 3,025 inhabitants where it started
    14,112 ha reached on 5 Sept
    3.3 %
  3. Guiratinga 10,966 inhabitants
    3 ha
    0.0 %

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)
5 Sept 34.8 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Sept 36.0 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
7 Sept 36.3 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Sept 36.4 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Sept 36.9 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Sept 37.2 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Sept 36.4 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
12 Sept 36.4 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
13 Sept 36.0 °C 16 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
14 Sept 36.1 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Sept 35.7 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Sept 37.2 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
17 Sept 36.2 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Sept 36.9 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Sept 38.0 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Sept after 36.4 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Sept after 35.0 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.7 mm High 34
22 Sept after 33.9 °C 35 % 27 km/h 1.6 mm High 23
23 Sept after 31.7 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
24 Sept after 35.6 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Sept after 37.0 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Sept after 34.8 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 41
27 Sept after 37.1 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Sept after 38.0 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Sept after 39.0 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Sept after 39.6 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
1 Oct after 38.2 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
2 Oct after 37.8 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Oct after 39.7 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Oct after 40.3 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
5 Oct after 40.2 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
6 Oct after 39.2 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Aug 2020
After · 26 Sept 2020

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 · 1,612Every 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 5 September 2020 and 19 September 2020: 15 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 44,944 hectares (449.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Poxoréu (31,136 ha, 4.5 %); Tesouro (14,112 ha, 3.3 %); Guiratinga (3 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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
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.