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Rurópolis fire, September 2026 Rurópolis, Altamira

Out · last detection 27 Sept 2026, 16:26 UTC

The fire started on 8 September 2026 in Rurópolis, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,917 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 296th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 1095 with a page). Number 168 in Brazil in 2026, of 747.

Burnt area
7,917ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
20days
8 Sept 2026 – 27 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
8 Sept
2026
Heat detections
457
in a single hotspot: 108 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Sept27 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

81011121314151617181920212223242627

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
39km/h · peak gust
36%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

37% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,034 ha in 2019, 177 ha in 2020, 1,455 ha in 2022, 357 ha in 2023, 1,890 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,952 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Rurópolis 35,769 inhabitants where it started
    5,579 ha reached on 8 Sept
    0.8 %
  2. Altamira 126,279 inhabitants
    2,386 ha reached on 11 Sept
    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)
3 Sept 33.8 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Sept 32.8 °C 46 % 32 km/h 0.5 mm High 28
5 Sept 32.4 °C 46 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
6 Sept 33.7 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
7 Sept 33.5 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
8 Sept 34.0 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Sept 31.9 °C 52 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
10 Sept 30.7 °C 59 % 31 km/h 1.6 mm Low 10
11 Sept 33.2 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
12 Sept 34.2 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
13 Sept 34.2 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Sept 34.5 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Sept 35.2 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Sept 34.8 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Sept 34.2 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Sept 34.4 °C 40 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Sept 34.1 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Sept 33.5 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Sept 33.9 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Sept 34.6 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Sept 35.0 °C 43 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Sept 32.9 °C 53 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
25 Sept 31.3 °C 57 % 37 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 14
26 Sept 32.5 °C 46 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
27 Sept 33.3 °C 48 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
28 Sept after 32.1 °C 57 % 31 km/h 5.8 mm Very low 5
29 Sept after 31.9 °C 54 % 27 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 12
30 Sept after 33.6 °C 42 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Oct after 33.7 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
2 Oct after 32.8 °C 47 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
3 Oct after 33.8 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
4 Oct after 34.0 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Sept 2026
After · 4 Oct 2026

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 28 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 234 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 78: 5.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak234 µg/m³
Days over the guideline17 days
PM10236 µg/m³
Optical depth0.99
6789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 457Every 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 Rurópolis fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 8 September 2026 to 27 September 2026 (20 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 September 2026 to 27 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,917 hectares (79.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rurópolis (5,579 ha, 0.8 %); Altamira (2,386 ha, 0.0 %).
Is the Rurópolis fire still active?
No fire detections since 27 Sept 2026, 16:26 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.