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Apuí fire, 16 August 2023 Apuí

Out · last detection 25 Aug 2023, 17:23 UTC

The fire started on 16 August 2023 in Apuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,528 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 319th largest in Amazonas since 2016 (of 450 with a page). Number 328 in Brazil in 2023, of 431.

Burnt area
3,528ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
16 Aug 2023 – 25 Aug 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
16 Aug
2023
Heat detections
234
in a single hotspot: 243 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Aug 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Aug25 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

16171819202122232425

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
27km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.5 mm on 26 Aug.

This area had burned before

73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,530 ha in 2021, 2,497 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,571 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Apuí 20,647 inhabitants where it started
    3,550 ha reached on 16 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)
16 Aug 34.4 °C 33 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
17 Aug 34.2 °C 40 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
18 Aug 35.4 °C 37 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Aug 36.8 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
20 Aug 36.1 °C 38 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Aug 36.3 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 Aug 36.6 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 Aug 36.5 °C 42 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Aug 35.2 °C 46 % 26 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 17
25 Aug 35.3 °C 43 % 20 km/h 0.1 mm High 23
26 Aug after 31.2 °C 63 % 16 km/h 3.5 mm Very low 5

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Aug 2023
After · 1 Sept 2023

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 18 August 2023 the air beside the fire reached 112 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 76: 5.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak112 µg/m³
Days over the guideline14 days
PM10159 µg/m³
Optical depth1.31
141516171819202122232425262728
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 · 234Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Apuí fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 August 2023 and 25 August 2023: 10 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 3,528 hectares (35.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Apuí (3,550 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.