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Uruçuí fire, 4 September 2021 Uruçuí, Palmeira do Piauí

Out · last detection 18 Sept 2021, 03:43 UTC

The fire started on 4 September 2021 in Uruçuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,921 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 519th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 803 with a page). Number 561 in Brazil in 2021, of 814.

Burnt area
3,921ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
4 Sept 2021 – 18 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
4 Sept
2021
Heat detections
187
in a single hotspot: 110 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Sept18 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

46789101112131415161718

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
43km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 257 ha in 2017, 22 ha in 2018, 658 ha in 2019, 135 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 991 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Uruçuí 25,203 inhabitants where it started
    3,783 ha reached on 4 Sept
    0.4 %
  2. Palmeira do Piauí 4,952 inhabitants
    168 ha reached on 7 Sept
    0.1 %

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)
29 Aug 35.3 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Aug 35.2 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 Aug 33.3 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Sept 32.4 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Sept 32.7 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
3 Sept 36.0 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Sept 34.9 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Sept 35.8 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Sept 36.5 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Sept 36.8 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Sept 35.8 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Sept 36.7 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Sept 37.3 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Sept 37.1 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
12 Sept 36.8 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Sept 37.0 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
14 Sept 37.2 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Sept 37.2 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Sept 36.2 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Sept 36.0 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Sept 35.7 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Sept after 36.6 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Sept after 37.5 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 Sept after 36.9 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Sept after 36.2 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Sept after 34.7 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Sept after 33.5 °C 37 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Sept after 34.9 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Sept after 35.8 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Sept after 35.4 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Sept after 34.7 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Sept after 35.5 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Sept after 33.4 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 Oct after 32.8 °C 46 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
2 Oct after 34.8 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.5 mm High 34
3 Oct after 35.8 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Oct after 36.8 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Oct after 37.3 °C 19 % 32 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 · 28 Aug 2021
After · 25 Sept 2021

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 · 187Every 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 4 September 2021 and 18 September 2021: 15 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 3,921 hectares (39.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Uruçuí (3,783 ha, 0.4 %); Palmeira do Piauí (168 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 43 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.