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Canto do Buriti fire, September 2020 Canto do Buriti, Pavussu

Out · last detection 13 Oct 2020, 15:53 UTC

The fire started on 23 September 2020 in Canto do Buriti, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 28,978 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 12th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 665 with a page). Number 49 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Canto do Buriti · 2021São José do Peixe · 2016Canto do Buriti · 2018Canto do Buriti · 2022

Burnt area
28,978ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
23 Sept 2020 – 13 Oct 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
23 Sept
2020
Heat detections
1,385
in a single hotspot: 483 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
2.3GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Sept13 Oct
13 Oct 2020

How it evolved, day by day

23 Sept 2020 · 51 MW · 5 24 Sept 2020 · 563 MW · 22 25 Sept 2020 · 96 MW · 9 26 Sept 2020 · 4 MW · 3 28 Sept 2020 · 292 MW · 17 29 Sept 2020 · 17 MW · 8 30 Sept 2020 · 1,791 MW · 51 1 Oct 2020 · 1,479 MW · 96 2 Oct 2020 · 4,628 MW · 82 3 Oct 2020 · 3,248 MW · 103 4 Oct 2020 · 14,151 MW · 249 5 Oct 2020 · 5,634 MW · 257 6 Oct 2020 · 2,140 MW · 130 7 Oct 2020 · 2,550 MW · 105 8 Oct 2020 · 1,885 MW · 140 9 Oct 2020 · 3,066 MW · 95 10 Oct 2020 · 32 MW · 11 13 Oct 2020 · 20 MW · 2
23 Sept 28 Sept 4 Oct 10 Oct

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
52km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

51% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,030 ha in 2016, 1,197 ha in 2017, 11,517 ha in 2018, 9 ha in 2019.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 18% of the area of London (290 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. Canto do Buriti 19,365 inhabitants where it started
    28,802 ha reached on 23 Sept
    6.6 %
  2. Pavussu 3,628 inhabitants
    352 ha reached on 7 Oct
    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 area1.1 ha
Residents≈ 30

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.1 hectares of built-up land and about 30 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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 55 % of the area in Brazil

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
23 Sept 36.4 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Sept 36.4 °C 24 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
25 Sept 35.4 °C 26 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
26 Sept 34.5 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
27 Sept 36.4 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Sept 37.9 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Sept 38.5 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
30 Sept 37.6 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
1 Oct 36.4 °C 18 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
2 Oct 36.9 °C 17 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
3 Oct 37.8 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Oct 38.4 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Oct 37.8 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
6 Oct 36.9 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
7 Oct 38.0 °C 21 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Oct 38.9 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Oct 37.6 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Oct 36.8 °C 34 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Oct 33.6 °C 43 % 37 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 42
12 Oct 33.7 °C 41 % 35 km/h 5.0 mm Very low 5
13 Oct 36.4 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Oct after 36.3 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Oct after 37.1 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Oct after 37.9 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Oct after 37.3 °C 18 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Oct after 37.3 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
19 Oct after 36.8 °C 21 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Oct after 37.0 °C 20 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Oct after 37.4 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
22 Oct after 37.1 °C 23 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Oct after 36.1 °C 28 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 53.8, a minimum humidity of 27% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 29.

FWI at the start 53.8
Minimum humidity 27 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Canto do Buriti fire, September 2021
11,239 ha 25 days FWI 53.5 Min. humidity 25 % 19 km away, in 2021

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

18 days
median duration
6,980 ha
median area
34 %
went past 10,000 ha
4.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 6 of 29 had it)

It was 4.2 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 21 days, against 18 days.

Only 1 of its 29 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 23 of 29, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 4.6 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
52km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 13 Oct, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 6 of 29, with a median of 4.6 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Sept 2020
After · 20 Oct 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 · 1,385Every 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 Canto do Buriti fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 September 2020 to 13 October 2020 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 23 September 2020 to 10 October 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 28,978 hectares (289.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Canto do Buriti (28,802 ha, 6.6 %); Pavussu (352 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 29. Their median duration was 18 days and their median area 6,980 ha; 34 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 1 of its 29 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 23 of 29, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 4.6 mm.

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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 10 October 2020 → 13 October 2020.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 23 September 2020 to 10 October 2020. 1,385 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.