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Uruçuí fire, 23 August 2019 Uruçuí

Out · last detection 15 Sept 2019, 17:22 UTC

The fire started on 23 August 2019 in Uruçuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,779 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 269th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 803 with a page). Number 391 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.

Burnt area
5,779ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
24days
23 Aug 2019 – 15 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
23 Aug
2019
Heat detections
283
in a single hotspot: 72 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Aug15 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

23252627283031123456789101112131415

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
52km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 38 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

51% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 454 ha in 2016, 1,209 ha in 2017, 1,462 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,930 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Uruçuí 25,203 inhabitants where it started
    5,814 ha reached on 16 Aug
    0.7 %

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)
16 Aug 34.4 °C 29 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Aug 34.6 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Aug 35.3 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Aug 36.1 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Aug 36.1 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Aug 36.1 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Aug 35.9 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Aug 35.8 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Aug 35.7 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Aug 35.4 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Aug 35.4 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Aug 35.1 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Aug 35.7 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Aug 36.0 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Aug 36.3 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Aug 36.6 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Sept 35.9 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Sept 36.8 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Sept 37.4 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Sept 37.6 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Sept 36.6 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Sept 36.4 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Sept 35.6 °C 25 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
8 Sept 36.7 °C 25 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Sept 36.9 °C 28 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Sept 37.0 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Sept 37.9 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Sept 38.1 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Sept 38.4 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Sept 38.6 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Sept 37.5 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Sept after 38.0 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Sept after 37.6 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Sept after 38.0 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Sept after 39.2 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Sept after 39.2 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Sept after 39.3 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Sept after 38.5 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Sept after 39.0 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Sept after 36.3 °C 29 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Sept after 37.9 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Sept after 38.7 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Sept after 38.0 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Sept after 37.5 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Sept after 32.1 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Aug 2019
After · 22 Sept 2019

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 · 283Every 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 23 August 2019 and 15 September 2019: 24 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 5,779 hectares (57.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Uruçuí (5,814 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.