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Uruçuí fire, 13 August 2019 Uruçuí

Out · last detection 18 Aug 2019, 16:06 UTC

The fire started on 13 August 2019 in Uruçuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,127 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 751th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 804 with a page). Number 916 in Brazil in 2019, of 974.

Burnt area
3,127ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
13 Aug 2019 – 18 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
13 Aug
2019
Heat detections
81
in a single hotspot: 64 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
646MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Aug 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Aug18 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

131415161718

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
55km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 30 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,857 ha in 2017, 1 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Uruçuí 25,203 inhabitants where it started
    3,146 ha reached on 8 Aug
    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)
8 Aug 33.5 °C 38 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Aug 33.9 °C 32 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Aug 34.0 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Aug 34.6 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Aug 34.8 °C 35 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Aug 34.6 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Aug 35.3 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
15 Aug 34.5 °C 31 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Aug 33.8 °C 30 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Aug 33.9 °C 32 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Aug 34.4 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Aug after 35.3 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Aug after 36.0 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Aug after 35.5 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Aug after 35.6 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Aug after 34.9 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Aug after 34.9 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Aug after 34.6 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Aug after 34.7 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Aug after 34.6 °C 33 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Aug after 35.0 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Aug 2019
After · 25 Aug 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 · 81Every 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 13 August 2019 and 18 August 2019: 6 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 3,127 hectares (31.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Uruçuí (3,146 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.3 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.