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Angical fire, September 2021 Angical, Cotegipe

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2021, 16:24 UTC

The fire started on 16 September 2021 in Angical, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,285 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 182th largest in Bahia since 2016 (of 466 with a page). Number 289 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Burnt area
6,285ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
16 Sept 2021 – 23 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
16 Sept
2021
Heat detections
253
in a single hotspot: 450 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
11.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Sept23 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
38km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

17% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,079 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Angical 13,732 inhabitants where it started
    3,975 ha reached on 13 Sept
    2.6 %
  2. Cotegipe 13,063 inhabitants
    2,347 ha reached on 16 Sept
    0.5 %

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)
13 Sept 36.6 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Sept 37.9 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Sept 38.6 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Sept 38.0 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Sept 35.2 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Sept 35.8 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Sept 37.8 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Sept 38.3 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Sept 38.3 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Sept 40.5 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Sept 36.0 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Sept after 35.1 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Sept after 34.4 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Sept after 35.0 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Sept after 36.0 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Sept after 36.3 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Sept after 36.8 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Sept after 37.5 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Oct after 37.0 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Oct after 37.0 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Oct after 38.1 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Sept 2021
After · 30 Sept 2021

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 · 253Every 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 Angical fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 September 2021 and 23 September 2021: 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 6,285 hectares (62.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Angical (3,975 ha, 2.6 %); Cotegipe (2,347 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.5 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very 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
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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.