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Barra fire, 9 September 2021 Barra

Out · last detection 30 Sept 2021, 15:53 UTC

The fire started on 9 September 2021 in Barra, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,248 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 431th largest in Bahia since 2016 (of 467 with a page). Number 727 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Barra · 2026Barra · 2022Barra · 2017Barra · 2016

Burnt area
3,248ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
9 Sept 2021 – 30 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
9 Sept
2021
Heat detections
196
in a single hotspot: 47 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
64MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Sept30 Sept
30 Sept 2021

How it evolved, day by day

9 Sept 2021 · 11 MW · 3 10 Sept 2021 · 109 MW · 7 11 Sept 2021 · 231 MW · 29 12 Sept 2021 · 66 MW · 9 13 Sept 2021 · 68 MW · 12 14 Sept 2021 · 79 MW · 2 15 Sept 2021 · 19 MW · 3 16 Sept 2021 · 58 MW · 5 17 Sept 2021 · 53 MW · 11 18 Sept 2021 · 25 MW · 4 19 Sept 2021 · 16 MW · 2 20 Sept 2021 · 25 MW · 6 21 Sept 2021 · 24 MW · 6 22 Sept 2021 · 11 MW · 3 23 Sept 2021 · 29 MW · 5 24 Sept 2021 · 98 MW · 4 25 Sept 2021 · 115 MW · 8 26 Sept 2021 · 44 MW · 17 27 Sept 2021 · 131 MW · 22 28 Sept 2021 · 113 MW · 25 29 Sept 2021 · 45 MW · 8 30 Sept 2021 · 34 MW · 5
9 Sept 11 Sept 13 Sept 17 Sept 21 Sept 25 Sept 29 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
46km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 214 ha in 2020.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.1% of the area of London (32 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Barra 51,092 inhabitants where it started
    3,270 ha reached on 9 Sept
    0.3 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents≈ 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.04 hectares of built-up land and about 20 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
3 Sept 35.1 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Sept 35.7 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Sept 35.7 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
6 Sept 37.6 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Sept 38.3 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
8 Sept 35.5 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
9 Sept 36.6 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
10 Sept 38.2 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
11 Sept 37.7 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Sept 37.2 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
13 Sept 36.6 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Sept 37.4 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
15 Sept 38.3 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
16 Sept 37.3 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
17 Sept 35.4 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Sept 35.4 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
19 Sept 37.4 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Sept 38.3 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Sept 38.0 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
22 Sept 39.8 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Sept 35.3 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 Sept 35.1 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Sept 34.3 °C 32 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Sept 36.2 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Sept 36.7 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Sept 37.2 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Sept 37.3 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
30 Sept 37.0 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
1 Oct after 37.6 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Oct after 38.4 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Oct after 38.3 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Oct after 38.7 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Oct after 38.7 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Oct after 38.6 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
7 Oct after 38.3 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Oct after 39.7 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Oct after 38.4 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
10 Oct after 37.8 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Oct after 33.8 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Oct after 37.1 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Oct after 34.3 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Oct after 36.7 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Oct after 37.4 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Oct after 38.4 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Oct after 37.7 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Sept 2021
After · 7 Oct 2021

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 196Every 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 Barra fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 September 2021 and 30 September 2021: 22 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 3,248 hectares (32.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Barra (3,270 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 196 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.