Apuí fire, 4 August 2020 Apuí
The fire started on 4 August 2020 in Apuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,912 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 97th largest in Amazonas since 2016 (of 450 with a page). Number 335 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.
- Burnt area
- 6,912ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 4 Aug 2020 – 10 Aug 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 4 Aug
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 638
- in a single hotspot: 399 MW
- Danger at start
- 47
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 12.2GW
- 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 46 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.2 mm on 25 Aug.
This area had burned before
73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,363 ha in 2016, 2,671 ha in 2017, 3,565 ha in 2018, 3,032 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,032 ha that had burned before.
- 2,840 ha Apuí fire, July 2019 14,596 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,274 ha Apuí fire, August 2018 3,423 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,053 ha Apuí fire, August 2017 3,300 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 117 ha Apuí fire, July 2019 9,448 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 44 ha Apuí fire, August 2016 4,271 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
6,948 ha reached on 29 Jul0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Jul | 36.6 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 30 Jul | 37.4 °C | 13 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 31 Jul | 38.7 °C | 14 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 1 Aug | 36.8 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 2 Aug | 35.9 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 3 Aug | 36.7 °C | 20 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 4 Aug | 37.4 °C | 22 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 5 Aug | 36.6 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 6 Aug | 36.5 °C | 23 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 7 Aug | 35.7 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 8 Aug | 36.4 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 9 Aug | 36.0 °C | 23 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Aug | 37.6 °C | 23 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 11 Aug after | 36.9 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 12 Aug after | 37.0 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 13 Aug after | 36.9 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 14 Aug after | 37.1 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 15 Aug after | 35.8 °C | 30 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 16 Aug after | 37.5 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 17 Aug after | 39.6 °C | 20 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 18 Aug after | 38.9 °C | 21 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 19 Aug after | 38.5 °C | 24 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 20 Aug after | 38.3 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 21 Aug after | 32.0 °C | 37 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 22 Aug after | 31.5 °C | 36 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 23 Aug after | 34.4 °C | 34 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 24 Aug after | 35.2 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 25 Aug after | 33.5 °C | 47 % | 25 km/h | 2.2 mm | Moderate 11 |
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 · 638Every 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 4 August 2020 and 10 August 2020: 7 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 6,912 hectares (69.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Apuí (6,948 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % 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
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.