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Apuí fire, 31 July 2019 Apuí

Out · last detection 15 Aug 2019, 17:04 UTC

The fire started on 31 July 2019 in Apuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,586 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 314th largest in Amazonas since 2016 (of 450 with a page). Number 747 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.

Burnt area
3,586ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
31 Jul 2019 – 14 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
31 Jul
2019
Heat detections
269
in a single hotspot: 552 MW
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
7.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Aug 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Jul14 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

3112346789101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
42km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 25 Aug.

This area had burned before

34% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,260 ha in 2016, 626 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,223 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Apuí 20,647 inhabitants where it started
    3,604 ha reached on 27 Jul
    0.1 %

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)
27 Jul 37.3 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
28 Jul 37.1 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Jul 36.3 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
30 Jul 38.1 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Jul 38.6 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Aug 37.9 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Aug 38.4 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Aug 36.9 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Aug 34.8 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Aug 34.7 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Aug 36.2 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Aug 34.4 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.3 mm High 31
8 Aug 35.7 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Aug 37.0 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Aug 38.0 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Aug 38.2 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Aug 39.1 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Aug 39.2 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Aug 38.7 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Aug after 36.1 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Aug after 33.4 °C 54 % 36 km/h 7.6 mm Low 5
17 Aug after 33.9 °C 42 % 33 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 14
18 Aug after 33.9 °C 41 % 24 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 19
19 Aug after 37.8 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Aug after 36.7 °C 32 % 22 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
21 Aug after 37.3 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Aug after 37.5 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Aug after 37.3 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
24 Aug after 35.8 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
25 Aug after 36.6 °C 28 % 31 km/h 2.1 mm High 24

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Jul 2019
After · 21 Aug 2019

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 · 269Every 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 Apuí fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 July 2019 and 14 August 2019: 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 3,586 hectares (35.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Apuí (3,604 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °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
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.