Skip to content
worldfires
BR · Brazil · →

Pequi fire, August 2021 Onça de Pitangui, Pitangui, Pequi

Out · last detection 1 Sept 2021, 04:05 UTC

The fire started on 25 August 2021 in Pequi, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,929 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 76th largest in Minas Gerais since 2016 (of 227 with a page). Number 410 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Burnt area
4,929ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
25 Aug 2021 – 1 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
4
municipalities
Started on
25 Aug
2021
Heat detections
180
in a single hotspot: 75 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Aug1 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2526272829301

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
41km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,957 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Onça de Pitangui 2,969 inhabitants
    1,966 ha reached on 25 Aug
    7.9 %
  2. Pitangui 26,685 inhabitants
    1,940 ha reached on 29 Aug
    3.4 %
  3. Pequi 4,155 inhabitants where it started
    723 ha reached on 23 Aug
    3.5 %
  4. Maravilhas 7,333 inhabitants
    325 ha reached on 29 Aug
    1.2 %

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)
23 Aug 28.9 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Aug 29.6 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Aug 29.1 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Aug 29.7 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Aug 28.8 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Aug 25.8 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Aug 25.4 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Aug 25.8 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Aug 24.4 °C 41 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Sept 24.6 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
2 Sept after 26.4 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm High 31
3 Sept after 28.6 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Sept after 30.9 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Sept after 32.3 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Sept after 34.4 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 Sept after 32.1 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Sept after 32.0 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Sept after 33.0 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Sept after 33.8 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Sept after 32.4 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Sept after 32.2 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Sept after 33.1 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Sept after 33.3 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Sept after 34.0 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Sept after 30.8 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Aug 2021
After · 8 Sept 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 · 180Every 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 Pequi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 August 2021 and 1 September 2021: 8 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 4,929 hectares (49.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Onça de Pitangui (1,966 ha, 7.9 %); Pitangui (1,940 ha, 3.4 %); Pequi (723 ha, 3.5 %); Maravilhas (325 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.

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.