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Uruçuí fire, 21 September 2017 Uruçuí

Out · last detection 30 Sept 2017, 15:48 UTC

The fire started on 21 September 2017 in Uruçuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,841 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 532th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 803 with a page). Number 687 in Brazil in 2017, of 994.

Burnt area
3,841ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
21 Sept 2017 – 30 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
21 Sept
2017
Heat detections
164
in a single hotspot: 58 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Sept30 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

21222324252627282930

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
51km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Uruçuí 25,203 inhabitants where it started
    3,861 ha reached on 21 Sept
    0.5 %

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)
21 Sept 36.7 °C 23 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Sept 36.0 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Sept 35.9 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Sept 36.1 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
25 Sept 35.9 °C 24 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Sept 37.2 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Sept 37.4 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Sept 37.7 °C 27 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Sept 37.5 °C 27 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
30 Sept 37.5 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Oct after 37.6 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 Oct after 38.9 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Oct after 38.5 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Oct after 37.8 °C 22 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Oct after 37.1 °C 21 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
6 Oct after 37.2 °C 24 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
7 Oct after 36.2 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
8 Oct after 37.4 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Oct after 35.8 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Oct after 36.0 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Oct after 37.6 °C 28 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
12 Oct after 37.8 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Oct after 37.7 °C 29 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 Oct after 37.9 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Oct after 38.0 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Oct after 37.1 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
17 Oct after 37.1 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Sept 2017
After · 7 Oct 2017

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 · 164Every 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 21 September 2017 and 30 September 2017: 10 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 3,841 hectares (38.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Uruçuí (3,861 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.

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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.