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Apuí fire, 22 July 2024 Apuí

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2024, 16:45 UTC

The fire started on 22 July 2024 in Apuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 54 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 39,405 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the 4th largest in Amazonas since 2016 (of 450 with a page). Number 73 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Burnt area
39,405ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
54days
22 Jul 2024 – 13 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
22 Jul
2024
Heat detections
5,264
in a single hotspot: 471 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
84.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Sept 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Jul13 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

222324293031123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
39km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 10 Sept.

This area had burned before

93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,753 ha in 2016, 10,428 ha in 2017, 3,979 ha in 2018, 13,369 ha in 2019, 18,401 ha in 2020, 13,415 ha in 2021, 36,448 ha in 2022, 8,160 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 36,660 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Apuí 20,647 inhabitants where it started
    39,604 ha reached on 17 Jul
    0.7 %

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)
17 Jul 35.1 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Jul 34.9 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Jul 34.9 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Jul 35.3 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Jul 35.3 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Jul 35.2 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Jul 35.3 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Jul 36.0 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Jul 35.6 °C 32 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Jul 36.3 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Jul 36.0 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Jul 36.8 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
29 Jul 36.0 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Jul 37.6 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
31 Jul 37.1 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Aug 36.1 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Aug 36.5 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Aug 36.1 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 38
4 Aug 36.9 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Aug 36.8 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Aug 35.4 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Aug 36.4 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Aug 37.5 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Aug 38.4 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Aug 33.8 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Aug 35.4 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Aug 36.5 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Aug 36.6 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
14 Aug 36.0 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Aug 32.9 °C 53 % 34 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 15
16 Aug 33.0 °C 48 % 24 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 17
17 Aug 35.4 °C 33 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Aug 35.1 °C 39 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 31
19 Aug 35.0 °C 38 % 24 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
20 Aug 37.4 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Aug 36.9 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
22 Aug 38.8 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Aug 37.9 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Aug 35.7 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
25 Aug 36.3 °C 31 % 38 km/h 1.2 mm High 32
26 Aug 34.2 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Aug 36.0 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Aug 37.0 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Aug 34.0 °C 43 % 27 km/h 0.6 mm High 30
30 Aug 35.9 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Aug 38.4 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Sept 38.6 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 Sept 38.3 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Sept 36.4 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.5 mm High 37
4 Sept 37.8 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Sept 39.3 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Sept 38.0 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 45
7 Sept 36.9 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Sept 35.8 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.7 mm High 37
9 Sept 36.4 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.8 mm High 30
10 Sept 34.6 °C 42 % 40 km/h 1.2 mm High 26

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Jul 2024
After · 20 Sept 2024

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 29 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 428 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 243: 16 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak428 µg/m³
Days over the guideline57 days
PM10613 µg/m³
Optical depth3.51
2021222324252627282930311234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112345678910111213141516
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 · 5,264Every 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 22 July 2024 and 13 September 2024: 54 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 39,405 hectares (394.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Apuí (39,604 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.3 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class Extreme.
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.