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Uruçuí fire, September 2016 Uruçuí

Out · last detection 10 Sept 2016, 16:06 UTC

The fire started on 6 September 2016 in Uruçuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,819 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 539th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 804 with a page). Number 435 in Brazil in 2016, of 649.

The power measured by the satellite is low (19.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,819ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
6 Sept 2016 – 9 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
6 Sept
2016
Heat detections
128
in a single hotspot: 20 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
800MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Sept9 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

678910

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
48km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Uruçuí 25,203 inhabitants where it started
    3,839 ha reached on 3 Sept
    0.4 %

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 36.8 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Sept 35.9 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
5 Sept 37.5 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Sept 38.5 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 Sept 38.8 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
8 Sept 38.0 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Sept 38.4 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Sept after 38.3 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
11 Sept after 37.7 °C 26 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
12 Sept after 38.4 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Sept after 39.2 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Sept after 38.8 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Sept after 39.1 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
16 Sept after 39.6 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Sept after 38.7 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Sept after 38.4 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Sept after 39.1 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Sept after 38.6 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Aug 2016
After · 16 Sept 2016

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 · 128Every 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 Uruçuí fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 September 2016 and 9 September 2016: 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 3,819 hectares (38.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Uruçuí (3,839 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.