How long did the Apuí fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 August 2022 and 27 August 2022: 15 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 4,423 hectares (44.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Apuí (2,503 ha, 0.0 %); Borba (1,949 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.

BR · Brazil · 2022-08-13 → 2022-08-27

Apuí fire, 13 August 2022 Apuí, Borba

Out · last detection 27 Aug 2022, 17:29 UTC

The fire started on 13 August 2022 in Apuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,423 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 204th largest in Amazonas since 2016 (of 450 with a page). Number 359 in Brazil in 2022, of 687.

Burnt area: 4,423ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 15days; 13 Aug 2022 – 27 Aug 2022
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 13 Aug; 2022
Heat detections: 418; in a single hotspot: 213 MW
Danger at start: 25; High · FWI index
Energy released: 4.1GW; sum of detected power

Play back 27 Aug 2022

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Aug27 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

131415161718192021222324252627

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high

42km/h · peak gust

34%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.3 mm on 6 Sept.

This area had burned before

51% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,626 ha in 2020, 624 ha in 2021.

What happened to each town

Apuí 20,647 inhabitants where it started

2,503 ha reached on 12 Aug

0.0 %
Borba 33,080 inhabitants

1,949 ha reached on 13 Aug

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)
12 Aug	33.1 °C	39 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
13 Aug	34.1 °C	39 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
14 Aug	31.3 °C	57 %	27 km/h	0.4 mm	High 22
15 Aug	33.0 °C	48 %	28 km/h	0.4 mm	High 22
16 Aug	34.7 °C	39 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
17 Aug	34.7 °C	41 %	27 km/h	0.1 mm	High 26
18 Aug	35.5 °C	37 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
19 Aug	32.3 °C	46 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
20 Aug	30.5 °C	43 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
21 Aug	33.1 °C	34 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
22 Aug	33.5 °C	35 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
23 Aug	33.5 °C	36 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
24 Aug	34.0 °C	37 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
25 Aug	32.9 °C	49 %	24 km/h	0.1 mm	High 27
26 Aug	33.8 °C	46 %	25 km/h	0.5 mm	High 26
27 Aug	33.3 °C	49 %	26 km/h	6.9 mm	Very low 5
28 Aug after	31.8 °C	57 %	22 km/h	5.2 mm	Very low 3
29 Aug after	33.3 °C	48 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
30 Aug after	32.5 °C	53 %	20 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 15
31 Aug after	34.1 °C	46 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
1 Sept after	33.7 °C	43 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
2 Sept after	33.2 °C	48 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
3 Sept after	34.8 °C	35 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
4 Sept after	35.0 °C	31 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
5 Sept after	34.0 °C	38 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
6 Sept after	31.5 °C	58 %	24 km/h	5.3 mm	Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 6 Aug 2022

After · 3 Sept 2022

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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 23 August 2022 the air beside the fire reached 1,695 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 754: 50 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak1,695 µg/m³

Days over the guideline20 days

PM102,421 µg/m³

Optical depth3.41

WHO 15

1112131415161718192021222324252627282930

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 418Every 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 13 August 2022 and 27 August 2022: 15 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 4,423 hectares (44.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Apuí (2,503 ha, 0.0 %); Borba (1,949 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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

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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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.

Where it burned