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Apodi fire, December 2020 Apodi, Governador Dix-Sept Rosado

Out · last detection 6 Jan 2021, 16:00 UTC

The fire started on 30 December 2020 in Apodi, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,619 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

Number 552 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area
4,619ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
30 Dec 2020 – 6 Jan 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
30 Dec
2020
Heat detections
140
in a single hotspot: 160 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Jan 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Dec6 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

3031123456

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
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 50 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. Apodi 35,897 inhabitants where it started
    3,076 ha reached on 30 Dec
    1.9 %
  2. Governador Dix-Sept Rosado 11,932 inhabitants
    1,572 ha reached on 30 Dec
    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)
30 Dec 36.3 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
31 Dec 37.6 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Jan 37.1 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Jan 37.4 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Jan 36.3 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
4 Jan 37.3 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
5 Jan 36.5 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Jan 37.1 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
7 Jan after 37.1 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Jan after 37.0 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Jan after 36.8 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Jan after 35.1 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 44
11 Jan after 35.7 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Jan after 34.1 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.7 mm High 33
13 Jan after 34.2 °C 49 % 38 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
14 Jan after 35.1 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Jan after 37.6 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Jan after 36.4 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Dec 2020
After · 13 Jan 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 · 140Every 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 Apodi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 December 2020 and 6 January 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 4,619 hectares (46.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Apodi (3,076 ha, 1.9 %); Governador Dix-Sept Rosado (1,572 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.