How long did the Tapauá fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 July 2024 and 9 August 2024: 13 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 6,780 hectares (67.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Tapauá (6,834 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.

BR · Brazil · 2024-07-28 → 2024-08-09

Tapauá fire, July 2024 Tapauá

Out · last detection 10 Aug 2024, 17:42 UTC

The fire started on 28 July 2024 in Tapauá, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,780 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 99th largest in Amazonas since 2016 (of 450 with a page). Number 476 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Burnt area: 6,780ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 13days; 28 Jul 2024 – 9 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 28 Jul; 2024
Heat detections: 360; in a single hotspot: 187 MW
Danger at start: 36; High · FWI index
Energy released: 3.0GW; sum of detected power

Play back 10 Aug 2024

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Jul9 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

29303123578910

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

The weather it burned in

39°high

40km/h · peak gust

23%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.8 mm on 25 Aug.

This area had burned before

72% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,448 ha in 2018, 21 ha in 2019, 1,207 ha in 2020, 3,910 ha in 2021, 3,435 ha in 2022, 3,175 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,897 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Tapauá 19,599 inhabitants where it started

6,834 ha reached on 29 Jul

0.1 %

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)
28 Jul	36.1 °C	28 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
29 Jul	37.1 °C	30 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
30 Jul	38.0 °C	25 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
31 Jul	36.2 °C	35 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
1 Aug	36.4 °C	34 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
2 Aug	37.0 °C	33 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
3 Aug	34.7 °C	45 %	22 km/h	1.3 mm	Moderate 19
4 Aug	34.9 °C	48 %	29 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 21
5 Aug	36.5 °C	31 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
6 Aug	36.5 °C	29 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
7 Aug	37.2 °C	27 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
8 Aug	38.0 °C	25 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
9 Aug	38.7 °C	23 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
10 Aug after	31.1 °C	39 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
11 Aug after	33.0 °C	34 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
12 Aug after	34.6 °C	31 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
13 Aug after	36.0 °C	24 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
14 Aug after	35.2 °C	32 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
15 Aug after	34.8 °C	43 %	28 km/h	0.2 mm	High 32
16 Aug after	34.9 °C	46 %	27 km/h	1.5 mm	Moderate 17
17 Aug after	37.2 °C	33 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
18 Aug after	38.0 °C	26 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
19 Aug after	37.3 °C	35 %	28 km/h	0.2 mm	High 36
20 Aug after	36.3 °C	35 %	27 km/h	0.5 mm	High 33
21 Aug after	37.6 °C	28 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
22 Aug after	38.3 °C	31 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
23 Aug after	38.4 °C	26 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
24 Aug after	37.9 °C	31 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
25 Aug after	33.4 °C	50 %	34 km/h	7.8 mm	Low 7

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 21 Jul 2024

After · 16 Aug 2024

Before After

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 7 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 144 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 75: 5.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak144 µg/m³

Days over the guideline18 days

PM10206 µg/m³

Optical depth2.95

WHO 15

262728293031123456789101112

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 · 360Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Tapauá fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 July 2024 and 9 August 2024: 13 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 6,780 hectares (67.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Tapauá (6,834 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned