Skip to content
worldfires
BR · Brazil · →

Buritizeiro fire, August 2020 João Pinheiro, Buritizeiro

Out · last detection 30 Aug 2020, 16:16 UTC

The fire started on 26 August 2020 in Buritizeiro, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,754 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 134th largest in Minas Gerais since 2016 (of 227 with a page). Number 708 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area
3,754ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
26 Aug 2020 – 30 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
26 Aug
2020
Heat detections
124
in a single hotspot: 39 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
900MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Aug 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Aug30 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2627282930

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
39km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. João Pinheiro 46,801 inhabitants
    2,899 ha reached on 26 Aug
    0.3 %
  2. Buritizeiro 23,910 inhabitants where it started
    879 ha reached on 26 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)
26 Aug 26.5 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Aug 28.6 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Aug 28.4 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Aug 29.1 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
30 Aug 30.6 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
31 Aug after 31.6 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Sept after 30.2 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Sept after 28.4 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Sept after 29.2 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Sept after 30.5 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Sept after 29.9 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Sept after 29.8 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Sept after 31.2 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
8 Sept after 31.9 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Sept after 32.4 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Sept after 32.0 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Sept after 32.7 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Sept after 31.6 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Sept after 30.3 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Sept after 30.2 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Sept after 31.0 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 Sept after 30.0 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Aug 2020
After · 6 Sept 2020

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 · 124Every 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 Buritizeiro fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 August 2020 and 30 August 2020: 5 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 3,754 hectares (37.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: João Pinheiro (2,899 ha, 0.3 %); Buritizeiro (879 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very 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.