Barra fire, 13 September 2026 Barra
The fire started on 13 September 2026 in Barra, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 35 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 49,060 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 5th largest in Bahia since 2016 (of 466 with a page). Number 7 in Brazil in 2026, of 749.
- Burnt area
- 49,060ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 35days
- 13 Sept 2026 – 17 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 13 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 1,819
- in a single hotspot: 557 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 51.4GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,048 ha in 2017, 1,722 ha in 2018, 2,094 ha in 2020, 19,002 ha in 2021, 13,131 ha in 2022, 251 ha in 2023, 2,307 ha in 2024, 9,167 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 34,010 ha that had burned before.
- 19,002 ha Wanderley fire, September 2021 216,996 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 13,131 ha Barra fire, September 2022 35,210 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9,167 ha Barra fire, August 2025 65,009 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,790 ha Barra fire, October 2017 12,685 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,716 ha Barra fire, October 2018 9,837 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 251 ha Barra fire, September 2023 8,163 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 123 ha Barra fire, September 2024 3,950 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
49,416 ha reached on 13 Sept4.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Sept | 38.0 °C | 17 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 7 Sept | 36.7 °C | 22 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 8 Sept | 36.3 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 9 Sept | 36.5 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 10 Sept | 35.5 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 11 Sept | 35.0 °C | 24 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 12 Sept | 36.7 °C | 18 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Sept | 37.5 °C | 18 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 14 Sept | 36.8 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 15 Sept | 38.0 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 16 Sept | 38.8 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 17 Sept | 37.2 °C | 16 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 18 Sept | 35.2 °C | 24 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 19 Sept | 35.0 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 20 Sept | 35.3 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 21 Sept | 36.2 °C | 22 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 22 Sept | 37.7 °C | 20 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 23 Sept | 39.0 °C | 17 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 24 Sept | 38.2 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 25 Sept | 36.1 °C | 28 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 41 |
| 26 Sept | 34.7 °C | 30 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 27 Sept | 37.7 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 28 Sept | 36.6 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 29 Sept | 38.2 °C | 19 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 30 Sept | 39.3 °C | 14 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 1 Oct | 39.0 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 2 Oct | 38.0 °C | 23 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 30 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 102 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 39: 2.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 1,819Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Barra fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 September 2026 and 17 October 2026: 35 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 49,060 hectares (490.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Barra (49,416 ha, 4.3 %).
- Is the Barra fire still active?
- No fire detections since 17 Oct 2026, 17:07 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.3 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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
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.