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Tapauá fire, August 2024 Tapauá, Humaitá

Out · last detection 25 Aug 2024, 18:01 UTC

The fire started on 8 August 2024 in Tapauá, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,687 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 297th largest in Amazonas since 2016 (of 450 with a page). Number 1001 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Burnt area
3,687ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
8 Aug 2024 – 24 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
8 Aug
2024
Heat detections
370
in a single hotspot: 135 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Aug 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Aug24 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

89101112131415161718192021232425

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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 24 ha in 2019, 2,659 ha in 2021, 3,442 ha in 2022, 853 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,790 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Tapauá 19,599 inhabitants where it started
    3,546 ha reached on 8 Aug
    0.0 %
  2. Humaitá 57,473 inhabitants
    168 ha reached on 15 Aug
    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)
8 Aug 37.9 °C 25 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Aug 38.6 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Aug 31.0 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Aug 32.9 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Aug 34.5 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Aug 35.9 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Aug 35.1 °C 32 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Aug 34.7 °C 43 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
16 Aug 34.8 °C 45 % 27 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 17
17 Aug 37.1 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
18 Aug 37.9 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Aug 37.2 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
20 Aug 36.2 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.5 mm High 33
21 Aug 37.5 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Aug 38.2 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Aug 38.3 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Aug 37.8 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Aug after 33.3 °C 49 % 34 km/h 7.8 mm Low 7
26 Aug after 32.1 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
27 Aug after 34.9 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Aug after 36.0 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Aug after 35.7 °C 34 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Aug after 36.9 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
31 Aug after 37.5 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Sept after 38.4 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Sept after 36.6 °C 34 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Sept after 36.4 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
4 Sept after 36.8 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
5 Sept after 37.3 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Sept after 35.2 °C 37 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Sept after 34.4 °C 50 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm High 25
8 Sept after 35.9 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Sept after 37.1 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
10 Sept after 36.5 °C 42 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Aug 2024
After · 31 Aug 2024

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 15 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 209 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 150: 10 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak209 µg/m³
Days over the guideline22 days
PM10299 µg/m³
Optical depth2.75
6789101112131415161718192021222324252627
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 · 370Every 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 Tapauá fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 August 2024 and 24 August 2024: 17 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 3,687 hectares (36.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tapauá (3,546 ha, 0.0 %); Humaitá (168 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °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

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.