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Uberaba fire, 6 September 2021 Uberaba, Delta

Out · last detection 9 Sept 2021, 04:55 UTC

The fire started on 6 September 2021 in Uberaba, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,481 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 93th largest in Minas Gerais since 2016 (of 227 with a page). Number 464 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Burnt area
4,481ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
6 Sept 2021 – 9 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
6 Sept
2021
Heat detections
174
in a single hotspot: 171 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Sept9 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

689

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
47km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 11 Sept.

This area had burned before

34% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,286 ha in 2017, 246 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Uberaba 337,836 inhabitants where it started
    3,026 ha reached on 6 Sept
    0.7 %
  2. Delta 10,494 inhabitants
    1,485 ha reached on 8 Sept
    14 %

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)
6 Sept 36.8 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Sept 37.2 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Sept 37.6 °C 17 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
9 Sept 35.0 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Sept after 32.4 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.7 mm High 28
11 Sept after 34.1 °C 26 % 36 km/h 1.4 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Aug 2021
After · 16 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 · 174Every 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 Uberaba fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 September 2021 and 9 September 2021: 4 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 4,481 hectares (44.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Uberaba (3,026 ha, 0.7 %); Delta (1,485 ha, 14 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.