Lábrea fire, 28 July 2021 Lábrea
The fire started on 28 July 2021 in Lábrea, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 34 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 41,632 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 3th largest in Amazonas since 2016 (of 450 with a page). Number 15 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Lábrea · 2020Lábrea · 2019Lábrea · 2019Lábrea · 2016
- Burnt area
- 41,632ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 34days
- 28 Jul 2021 – 30 Aug 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 28 Jul
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 3,801
- in a single hotspot: 511 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1.5GW
- detected power per day, on average
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 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.9 mm on 6 Sept.
This area had burned before
84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 21,299 ha in 2016, 15,559 ha in 2017, 21,792 ha in 2018, 36,180 ha in 2019, 27,422 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 35,108 ha that had burned before.
- 13,601 ha Lábrea fire, August 2020 15,510 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 10,246 ha Lábrea fire, July 2019 14,628 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,787 ha Lábrea fire, July 2019 14,695 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,478 ha Lábrea fire, August 2016 4,255 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,821 ha Lábrea fire, September 2018 3,486 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,741 ha Lábrea fire, August 2018 11,450 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,276 ha Lábrea fire, August 2016 8,338 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,962 ha Lábrea fire, August 2020 3,604 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
41,995 ha reached on 21 Jul0.6 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Jul | 32.0 °C | 36 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 22 Jul | 33.2 °C | 33 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 23 Jul | 34.2 °C | 30 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 24 Jul | 33.6 °C | 38 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 25 Jul | 33.6 °C | 41 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 26 Jul | 33.1 °C | 47 % | 26 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 27 Jul | 34.1 °C | 37 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 28 Jul | 31.4 °C | 45 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 29 Jul | 26.7 °C | 30 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 30 Jul | 28.5 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 31 Jul | 31.3 °C | 27 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 1 Aug | 32.9 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 2 Aug | 32.0 °C | 32 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 3 Aug | 33.1 °C | 31 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 4 Aug | 33.5 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 5 Aug | 33.7 °C | 32 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Aug | 34.6 °C | 29 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 7 Aug | 34.1 °C | 32 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 8 Aug | 33.4 °C | 37 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 9 Aug | 34.2 °C | 36 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 10 Aug | 34.1 °C | 37 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 11 Aug | 34.4 °C | 35 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 12 Aug | 32.6 °C | 38 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 13 Aug | 33.2 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 14 Aug | 33.2 °C | 37 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 15 Aug | 33.6 °C | 36 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 16 Aug | 34.2 °C | 37 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 17 Aug | 33.5 °C | 45 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 18 Aug | 34.3 °C | 37 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 19 Aug | 34.5 °C | 34 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 20 Aug | 33.6 °C | 41 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 21 Aug | 34.3 °C | 43 % | 27 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 28 |
| 22 Aug | 34.9 °C | 41 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 23 Aug | 35.1 °C | 36 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 24 Aug | 35.4 °C | 32 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 25 Aug | 34.6 °C | 47 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 26 Aug | 35.8 °C | 39 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 27 Aug | 33.1 °C | 47 % | 32 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 30 |
| 28 Aug | 30.8 °C | 56 % | 31 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 29 Aug | 34.2 °C | 45 % | 36 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 30 Aug | 32.8 °C | 50 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 31 Aug after | 34.2 °C | 46 % | 26 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 24 |
| 1 Sept after | 32.2 °C | 58 % | 28 km/h | 2.3 mm | Low 9 |
| 2 Sept after | 34.1 °C | 44 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 3 Sept after | 35.3 °C | 39 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 4 Sept after | 36.5 °C | 36 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 5 Sept after | 34.5 °C | 43 % | 32 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 29 |
| 6 Sept after | 33.4 °C | 51 % | 33 km/h | 2.9 mm | Low 8 |
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.
Detections table · 3,801Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 14,628 haLábrea29 July 2019 · 23 days · 4 km away
- 15,510 haLábrea7 August 2020 · 20 days · 5 km away
- 35,986 haLábrea14 August 2022 · 28 days · 9 km away
- 14,695 haLábrea31 July 2019 · 24 days · 19 km away
- 42,438 haLábrea2 August 2024 · 40 days · 23 km away
- 43,699 haLábrea13 July 2024 · 54 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lábrea fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 July 2021 and 30 August 2021: 34 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 41,632 hectares (416.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Lábrea (41,995 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 6 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 3,801 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.
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.