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Moeda fire, September 2020 Moeda, Belo Vale, Ouro Preto

Out · last detection 15 Sept 2020, 03:46 UTC

The fire started on 9 September 2020 in Moeda, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,781 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 78th largest in Minas Gerais since 2016 (of 227 with a page). Number 532 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area
4,781ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
9 Sept 2020 – 15 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
4
municipalities
Started on
9 Sept
2020
Heat detections
147
in a single hotspot: 113 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Sept15 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

91012131415

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
38km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 20 Sept.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Moeda 5,125 inhabitants where it started
    2,519 ha reached on 9 Sept
    16 %
  2. Belo Vale 8,627 inhabitants
    1,394 ha reached on 13 Sept
    3.8 %
  3. Ouro Preto 74,821 inhabitants
    541 ha reached on 12 Sept
    0.4 %
  4. Itabirito 53,365 inhabitants
    353 ha reached on 12 Sept
    0.6 %

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)
9 Sept 29.0 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Sept 29.6 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Sept 30.1 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Sept 29.3 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Sept 27.0 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Sept 27.9 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Sept 25.9 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Sept after 27.1 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Sept after 29.2 °C 27 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
18 Sept after 30.8 °C 24 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Sept after 31.8 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Sept after 29.4 °C 35 % 39 km/h 2.1 mm Moderate 17

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Sept 2020
After · 22 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 · 147Every 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 Moeda fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 September 2020 and 15 September 2020: 7 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 4,781 hectares (47.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Moeda (2,519 ha, 16 %); Belo Vale (1,394 ha, 3.8 %); Ouro Preto (541 ha, 0.4 %); Itabirito (353 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.1 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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

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.