Apuí fire, 28 July 2019 Apuí
The fire started on 28 July 2019 in Apuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,596 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 21th largest in Amazonas since 2016 (of 450 with a page). Number 93 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.
- Burnt area
- 14,596ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 22days
- 28 Jul 2019 – 18 Aug 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 28 Jul
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 1,464
- in a single hotspot: 242 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 21.1GW
- 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 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 26 Aug.
This area had burned before
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,794 ha in 2016, 11,151 ha in 2017, 7,450 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 13,324 ha that had burned before.
- 3,894 ha Apuí fire, August 2016 4,271 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,362 ha Apuí fire, August 2018 3,423 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,237 ha Apuí fire, August 2017 5,627 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,019 ha Apuí fire, August 2017 3,300 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,915 ha Apuí fire, August 2018 4,207 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
14,674 ha reached on 23 Jul0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Jul | 34.5 °C | 36 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 24 Jul | 37.6 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 25 Jul | 38.1 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 26 Jul | 38.0 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 27 Jul | 37.0 °C | 17 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 28 Jul | 36.8 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 29 Jul | 36.0 °C | 29 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 30 Jul | 37.8 °C | 20 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 31 Jul | 38.3 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 1 Aug | 37.6 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 2 Aug | 38.1 °C | 20 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 3 Aug | 36.6 °C | 22 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 4 Aug | 34.5 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 5 Aug | 34.4 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 6 Aug | 35.9 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 7 Aug | 34.1 °C | 40 % | 36 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 31 |
| 8 Aug | 35.4 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 9 Aug | 36.7 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 10 Aug | 37.7 °C | 18 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 11 Aug | 37.9 °C | 17 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 12 Aug | 38.8 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 13 Aug | 38.9 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 14 Aug | 38.4 °C | 15 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 15 Aug | 35.8 °C | 28 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Aug | 33.1 °C | 54 % | 36 km/h | 7.6 mm | Low 5 |
| 17 Aug | 33.6 °C | 42 % | 33 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 18 Aug | 33.6 °C | 41 % | 24 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 19 Aug after | 37.5 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 20 Aug after | 36.4 °C | 32 % | 22 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 32 |
| 21 Aug after | 37.0 °C | 28 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 22 Aug after | 37.2 °C | 29 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 23 Aug after | 37.0 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 38 |
| 24 Aug after | 35.5 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 25 Aug after | 36.3 °C | 28 % | 31 km/h | 2.1 mm | High 24 |
| 26 Aug after | 35.8 °C | 37 % | 31 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 20 |
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 · 1,464Every 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 Apuí fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 July 2019 and 18 August 2019: 22 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 14,596 hectares (146.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Apuí (14,674 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 42 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
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.