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Cotegipe fire, August 2021 Cotegipe, Mansidão, Wanderley

Out · last detection 28 Sept 2021, 16:31 UTC

The fire started on 18 August 2021 in Cotegipe, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 42 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 27,253 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 18th largest in Bahia since 2016 (of 466 with a page). Number 34 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Burnt area
27,253ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
42days
18 Aug 2021 – 28 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
18 Aug
2021
Heat detections
1,243
in a single hotspot: 433 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
30.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Aug28 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
47km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

30% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,733 ha in 2018, 5,288 ha in 2019, 1,335 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,244 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Cotegipe 13,063 inhabitants where it started
    27,339 ha reached on 18 Aug
    6.3 %
  2. Mansidão 13,919 inhabitants
    59 ha reached on 26 Aug
    0.0 %
  3. Wanderley 12,968 inhabitants
    11 ha reached on 19 Aug
    0.0 %

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)
18 Aug 30.1 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Aug 28.9 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Aug 30.4 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Aug 30.8 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Aug 30.9 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Aug 31.6 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Aug 31.7 °C 29 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Aug 31.8 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Aug 33.2 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Aug 32.4 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Aug 31.7 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Aug 32.2 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Aug 31.8 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
31 Aug 32.2 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Sept 26.6 °C 49 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
2 Sept 31.1 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Sept 31.6 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Sept 32.9 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Sept 32.4 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
6 Sept 34.1 °C 30 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Sept 36.0 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Sept 33.6 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Sept 34.1 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Sept 35.6 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Sept 35.2 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Sept 35.5 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Sept 34.4 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Sept 35.6 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Sept 36.4 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Sept 35.6 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Sept 33.8 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Sept 33.5 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Sept 34.5 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Sept 36.3 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Sept 36.1 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Sept 38.2 °C 18 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Sept 34.6 °C 29 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Sept 34.4 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Sept 33.2 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Sept 33.6 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Sept 34.5 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Sept 34.2 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Sept after 34.5 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Sept after 36.1 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Oct after 34.9 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Oct after 34.8 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Oct after 36.8 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Oct after 37.4 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Oct after 37.1 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Oct after 37.7 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Oct after 37.2 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Oct after 38.2 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Aug 2021
After · 5 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 · 1,243Every 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 Cotegipe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 August 2021 and 28 September 2021: 42 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 27,253 hectares (272.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Cotegipe (27,339 ha, 6.3 %); Mansidão (59 ha, 0.0 %); Wanderley (11 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.

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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.