Apuí fire, July 2021 Apuí
The fire started on 27 July 2021 in Apuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,257 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 16th largest in Amazonas since 2016 (of 450 with a page). Number 72 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.
- Burnt area
- 17,257ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 22days
- 27 Jul 2021 – 17 Aug 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 27 Jul
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 1,359
- in a single hotspot: 734 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 31.6GW
- 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 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.2 mm on 28 Aug.
This area had burned before
71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,549 ha in 2016, 4,921 ha in 2017, 1,860 ha in 2018, 5,851 ha in 2019, 11,283 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12,248 ha that had burned before.
- 2,551 ha Apuí fire, July 2020 3,334 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,216 ha Apuí fire, August 2020 6,912 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 628 ha Apuí fire, July 2019 14,596 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 217 ha Apuí fire, August 2016 4,271 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 134 ha Apuí fire, August 2018 4,207 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 86 ha Apuí fire, August 2018 3,423 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 62 ha Apuí fire, July 2019 9,448 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 39 ha Apuí fire, July 2019 3,445 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
17,348 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 | 35.1 °C | 36 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 24 Jul | 36.4 °C | 26 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 25 Jul | 36.7 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 26 Jul | 37.4 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 27 Jul | 37.4 °C | 19 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 28 Jul | 37.1 °C | 22 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 29 Jul | 34.8 °C | 22 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 30 Jul | 34.4 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 31 Jul | 35.7 °C | 22 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 1 Aug | 37.0 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 2 Aug | 35.3 °C | 26 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 3 Aug | 35.1 °C | 29 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 4 Aug | 37.3 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 5 Aug | 37.9 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 6 Aug | 37.4 °C | 20 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 7 Aug | 36.3 °C | 22 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 8 Aug | 37.1 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 9 Aug | 38.0 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 10 Aug | 37.8 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 11 Aug | 38.0 °C | 23 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 12 Aug | 38.1 °C | 22 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 13 Aug | 34.4 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 14 Aug | 33.9 °C | 37 % | 24 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 33 |
| 15 Aug | 34.2 °C | 40 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 16 Aug | 36.3 °C | 31 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 17 Aug | 37.8 °C | 20 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 18 Aug after | 37.1 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 19 Aug after | 37.1 °C | 20 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 20 Aug after | 36.8 °C | 24 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 21 Aug after | 37.9 °C | 20 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 22 Aug after | 37.8 °C | 20 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Aug after | 37.9 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 24 Aug after | 37.2 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 25 Aug after | 37.8 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 26 Aug after | 38.0 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 27 Aug after | 37.4 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 32 |
| 28 Aug after | 35.3 °C | 39 % | 26 km/h | 6.2 mm | Low 8 |
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 · 1,359Every 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 27 July 2021 and 17 August 2021: 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 17,257 hectares (172.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Apuí (17,348 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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
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.