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Bertolínia fire, September 2021 Bertolínia

Out · last detection 30 Sept 2021, 15:54 UTC

The fire started on 14 September 2021 in Bertolínia, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,346 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 447th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 804 with a page). Number 486 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Burnt area
4,346ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
14 Sept 2021 – 30 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
14 Sept
2021
Heat detections
176
in a single hotspot: 56 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Sept30 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

14151617181920212223252627282930

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
46km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

44% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,231 ha in 2018, 489 ha in 2019, 174 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. Bertolínia 5,562 inhabitants where it started
    4,373 ha reached on 12 Sept
    3.6 %

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)
12 Sept 38.3 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
13 Sept 38.5 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
14 Sept 37.7 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Sept 38.8 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Sept 38.2 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
17 Sept 37.4 °C 19 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
18 Sept 37.2 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
19 Sept 38.7 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Sept 39.1 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
21 Sept 38.8 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Sept 38.0 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Sept 37.9 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Sept 35.7 °C 33 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Sept 37.1 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Sept 37.5 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Sept 37.6 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Sept 37.3 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Sept 37.0 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Sept 35.4 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Oct after 35.0 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.7 mm High 28
2 Oct after 36.2 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.8 mm High 31
3 Oct after 37.5 °C 22 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Oct after 38.9 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Oct after 39.3 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Oct after 38.8 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Oct after 38.3 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Oct after 39.1 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Oct after 38.5 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Oct after 37.5 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 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 · 176Every 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 Bertolínia fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 September 2021 and 30 September 2021: 17 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 4,346 hectares (43.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bertolínia (4,373 ha, 3.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.1 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.

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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.