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Apuí fire, 27 August 2023 Apuí, Maués

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2023, 17:55 UTC

The fire started on 27 August 2023 in Apuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,539 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 317th largest in Amazonas since 2016 (of 450 with a page). Number 323 in Brazil in 2023, of 431.

Burnt area
3,539ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
24days
27 Aug 2023 – 19 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
27 Aug
2023
Heat detections
259
in a single hotspot: 2,130 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
11.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Sept 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Aug19 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2728293031145679111213141516171819

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
36km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 28 Sept.

This area had burned before

99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,500 ha in 2020, 3,263 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,521 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Apuí 20,647 inhabitants where it started
    3,456 ha reached on 27 Aug
    0.1 %
  2. Maués 61,204 inhabitants
    98 ha
    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)
27 Aug 36.5 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
28 Aug 36.3 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
29 Aug 36.5 °C 33 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
30 Aug 36.5 °C 41 % 24 km/h 3.7 mm Low 9
31 Aug 35.1 °C 46 % 28 km/h 4.0 mm Very low 5
1 Sept 35.7 °C 47 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 16
2 Sept 36.8 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
3 Sept 37.3 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Sept 38.0 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Sept 37.3 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Sept 37.8 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Sept 36.0 °C 37 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
8 Sept 34.6 °C 47 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
9 Sept 37.4 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
10 Sept 36.7 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
11 Sept 34.9 °C 48 % 30 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 15
12 Sept 35.1 °C 44 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm High 22
13 Sept 36.9 °C 40 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
14 Sept 36.4 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Sept 38.1 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Sept 34.5 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
17 Sept 31.9 °C 57 % 32 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 16
18 Sept 34.7 °C 51 % 28 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 18
19 Sept 36.7 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 Sept after 31.1 °C 56 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm High 23
21 Sept after 35.4 °C 43 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm High 23
22 Sept after 34.6 °C 50 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
23 Sept after 35.5 °C 43 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
24 Sept after 36.8 °C 42 % 23 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
25 Sept after 36.6 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.5 mm High 24
26 Sept after 37.9 °C 39 % 24 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
27 Sept after 38.5 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Sept after 32.3 °C 52 % 30 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Aug 2023
After · 26 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 16 September 2023 the air beside the fire reached 218 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 120: 8.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak218 µg/m³
Days over the guideline28 days
PM10312 µg/m³
Optical depth1.45
2526272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122
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 · 259Every 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 27 August 2023 and 19 September 2023: 24 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 3,539 hectares (35.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Apuí (3,456 ha, 0.1 %); Maués (98 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.