Skip to content
worldfires
BR · Brazil · →

Apuí fire, 21 August 2024 Apuí

Out · last detection 17 Sept 2024, 04:51 UTC

The fire started on 21 August 2024 in Apuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,149 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 237th largest in Amazonas since 2016 (of 450 with a page). Number 869 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Burnt area
4,149ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
28days
21 Aug 2024 – 17 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
21 Aug
2024
Heat detections
450
in a single hotspot: 117 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Sept 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Aug17 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

21222325262728311234567891011121314151617

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
34km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 26 Sept.

This area had burned before

92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,493 ha in 2021, 5,748 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,814 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Apuí 20,647 inhabitants where it started
    4,168 ha reached on 21 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)
14 Aug 34.9 °C 42 % 24 km/h 0.4 mm High 31
15 Aug 34.7 °C 48 % 31 km/h 10.7 mm Low 5
16 Aug 33.6 °C 51 % 28 km/h 6.0 mm Very low 3
17 Aug 34.9 °C 39 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
18 Aug 34.7 °C 46 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 17
19 Aug 34.8 °C 43 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
20 Aug 35.1 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
21 Aug 35.0 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
22 Aug 37.4 °C 31 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
23 Aug 37.4 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
24 Aug 36.0 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
25 Aug 35.3 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
26 Aug 34.0 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Aug 35.7 °C 32 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
28 Aug 35.4 °C 32 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Aug 32.6 °C 51 % 26 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 17
30 Aug 36.4 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
31 Aug 36.9 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 Sept 36.4 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Sept 37.1 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Sept 35.9 °C 42 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Sept 36.0 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
5 Sept 37.9 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Sept 34.4 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Sept 33.2 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
8 Sept 36.2 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
9 Sept 36.4 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Sept 35.9 °C 42 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
11 Sept 36.6 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Sept 38.1 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Sept 37.3 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Sept 36.7 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
15 Sept 35.7 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Sept 36.5 °C 35 % 21 km/h 0.6 mm High 28
17 Sept 37.4 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Sept after 35.6 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
19 Sept after 35.0 °C 45 % 30 km/h 0.6 mm High 24
20 Sept after 37.5 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Sept after 37.3 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Sept after 37.4 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Sept after 38.4 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Sept after 34.4 °C 44 % 25 km/h 0.6 mm High 27
25 Sept after 34.5 °C 45 % 27 km/h 0.6 mm High 24
26 Sept after 34.4 °C 44 % 25 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Aug 2024
After · 24 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 30 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 306 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 198: 13 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak306 µg/m³
Days over the guideline33 days
PM10438 µg/m³
Optical depth4.44
192021222324252627282930311234567891011121314151617181920
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 · 450Every 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 21 August 2024 and 17 September 2024: 28 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 4,149 hectares (41.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Apuí (4,168 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 34 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.