How long did the Apuí fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 July 2020 and 20 August 2020: 26 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 7,741 hectares (77.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Apuí (7,781 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.

BR · Brazil · 2020-07-26 → 2020-08-20

Apuí fire, 26 July 2020 Apuí

Out · last detection 21 Aug 2020, 04:51 UTC

The fire started on 26 July 2020 in Apuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,741 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 79th largest in Amazonas since 2016 (of 450 with a page). Number 284 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area: 7,741ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 26days; 26 Jul 2020 – 20 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 26 Jul; 2020
Heat detections: 749; in a single hotspot: 550 MW
Danger at start: 37; High · FWI index
Energy released: 17.7GW; sum of detected power

Play back 21 Aug 2020

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Jul20 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

262728293031123456789101112131415161718192021

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

41km/h · peak gust

18%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 30 Aug.

This area had burned before

59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 156 ha in 2016, 2,577 ha in 2017, 687 ha in 2018, 3,325 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,540 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Apuí 20,647 inhabitants where it started

7,781 ha reached on 26 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)
26 Jul	35.2 °C	26 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
27 Jul	35.9 °C	26 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
28 Jul	34.8 °C	32 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
29 Jul	36.2 °C	20 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
30 Jul	36.4 °C	19 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
31 Jul	37.8 °C	18 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
1 Aug	36.2 °C	23 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
2 Aug	35.3 °C	21 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
3 Aug	35.3 °C	27 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
4 Aug	36.1 °C	26 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
5 Aug	35.8 °C	28 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
6 Aug	35.9 °C	27 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
7 Aug	35.1 °C	27 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
8 Aug	35.7 °C	29 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
9 Aug	35.4 °C	26 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
10 Aug	36.4 °C	27 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
11 Aug	35.8 °C	27 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
12 Aug	36.5 °C	31 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
13 Aug	35.9 °C	35 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
14 Aug	36.2 °C	33 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
15 Aug	34.8 °C	35 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
16 Aug	36.5 °C	32 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
17 Aug	38.8 °C	22 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
18 Aug	37.9 °C	25 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
19 Aug	37.4 °C	28 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
20 Aug	37.1 °C	29 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
21 Aug after	30.2 °C	44 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
22 Aug after	29.9 °C	41 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
23 Aug after	33.1 °C	37 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
24 Aug after	33.9 °C	36 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
25 Aug after	32.2 °C	48 %	22 km/h	0.6 mm	High 22
26 Aug after	32.8 °C	47 %	22 km/h	0.3 mm	High 21
27 Aug after	34.5 °C	46 %	20 km/h	1.2 mm	Moderate 17
28 Aug after	32.7 °C	48 %	28 km/h	0.6 mm	Moderate 21
29 Aug after	34.5 °C	43 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
30 Aug after	33.6 °C	46 %	30 km/h	1.2 mm	Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 19 Jul 2020

After · 27 Aug 2020

Before After

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 · 749Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Apuí fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 July 2020 and 20 August 2020: 26 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 7,741 hectares (77.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Apuí (7,781 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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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.

Where it burned