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Apuí fire, 28 July 2022 Apuí

Out · last measured on 5 Aug 2022

The fire started on 28 July 2022 in Apuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,015 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 255th largest in Amazonas since 2016 (of 450 with a page). Number 412 in Brazil in 2022, of 687.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
4,015ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
28 Jul 2022 – 5 Aug 2022
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
28 Jul
2022
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

35°high
37km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 14 Aug.

This area had burned before

79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 102 ha in 2016, 137 ha in 2017, 1,150 ha in 2019, 3,466 ha in 2020, 2,160 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,156 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Apuí 20,647 inhabitants where it started
    4,036 ha reached on 11 Aug
    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)
28 Jul 34.5 °C 28 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Jul 33.6 °C 31 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Jul 33.1 °C 33 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
31 Jul 33.0 °C 47 % 23 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
1 Aug 32.5 °C 51 % 24 km/h 0.5 mm High 23
2 Aug 33.6 °C 41 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
3 Aug 33.1 °C 47 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
4 Aug 33.3 °C 49 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 25
5 Aug 34.6 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 25
6 Aug after 34.2 °C 43 % 19 km/h 0.3 mm High 24
7 Aug after 31.8 °C 52 % 26 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 16
8 Aug after 30.8 °C 60 % 23 km/h 1.8 mm Low 7
9 Aug after 33.2 °C 49 % 26 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 14
10 Aug after 30.6 °C 54 % 37 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 17
11 Aug after 32.2 °C 40 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
12 Aug after 32.5 °C 41 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
13 Aug after 33.9 °C 39 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
14 Aug after 31.0 °C 58 % 26 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 11

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Jul 2022
After · 12 Aug 2022

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Apuí fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 July 2022 and 5 August 2022: 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 4,015 hectares (40.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Apuí (4,036 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class 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
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.