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Uruçuí fire, September 2020 Uruçuí

Out · last detection 21 Sept 2020, 16:06 UTC

The fire started on 16 September 2020 in Uruçuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,772 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 545th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 803 with a page). Number 703 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area
3,772ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
16 Sept 2020 – 21 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
16 Sept
2020
Heat detections
92
in a single hotspot: 143 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Sept21 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

161718192021

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
23%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,116 ha in 2016, 1,161 ha in 2017, 714 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,672 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Uruçuí 25,203 inhabitants where it started
    3,794 ha reached on 16 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)
16 Sept 35.4 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Sept 36.3 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Sept 37.1 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Sept 37.0 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Sept 36.5 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Sept 37.6 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Sept after 36.5 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 41
23 Sept after 37.1 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Sept after 36.8 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Sept after 35.2 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Sept after 35.5 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Sept after 36.4 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Sept after 37.9 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Sept after 38.0 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Sept after 36.7 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
1 Oct after 36.9 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Sept 2020
After · 28 Sept 2020

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 · 92Every 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 16 September 2020 and 21 September 2020: 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 3,772 hectares (37.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Uruçuí (3,794 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.