Skip to content
worldfires
BR · Brazil · →

Apuí fire, 25 July 2020 Apuí, Maués

Out · last detection 2 Aug 2020, 16:44 UTC

The fire started on 25 July 2020 in Apuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,878 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 98th largest in Amazonas since 2016 (of 450 with a page). Number 341 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area
6,878ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
25 Jul 2020 – 2 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
25 Jul
2020
Heat detections
624
in a single hotspot: 749 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
15.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Aug 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jul2 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

25262728293012

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
40km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 41 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. Apuí 20,647 inhabitants where it started
    6,645 ha reached on 25 Jul
    0.1 %
  2. Maués 61,204 inhabitants
    265 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)
25 Jul 36.2 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Jul 35.4 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Jul 36.9 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Jul 36.2 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Jul 36.8 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Jul 37.5 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 Jul 38.7 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
1 Aug 37.0 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
2 Aug 35.9 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Aug after 36.9 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Aug after 38.1 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Aug after 36.9 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Aug after 36.9 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Aug after 36.0 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Aug after 36.6 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Aug after 36.5 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Aug after 37.9 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Aug after 36.9 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Aug after 37.2 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Jul 2020
After · 9 Aug 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 · 624Every 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 25 July 2020 and 2 August 2020: 9 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 6,878 hectares (68.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Apuí (6,645 ha, 0.1 %); Maués (265 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 40 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.