Uruçuí fire, August 2024 Uruçuí, Palmeira do Piauí
The fire started on 26 August 2024 in Uruçuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,134 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 488th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 803 with a page). Number 876 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.
- Burnt area
- 4,134ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 26 Aug 2024 – 29 Aug 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 26 Aug
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 109
- in a single hotspot: 279 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.3GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
9% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 381 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
3,242 ha reached on 26 Aug0.4 %
-
Palmeira do Piauí 4,952 inhabitants922 ha reached on 27 Aug0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Aug | 35.5 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 27 Aug | 35.3 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 28 Aug | 33.4 °C | 22 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 29 Aug | 33.9 °C | 18 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 30 Aug after | 32.8 °C | 25 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 31 Aug after | 33.3 °C | 24 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 1 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 20 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 2 Sept after | 33.8 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 3 Sept after | 35.5 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 4 Sept after | 35.6 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 5 Sept after | 35.3 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 6 Sept after | 35.6 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 7 Sept after | 35.6 °C | 19 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 8 Sept after | 35.1 °C | 18 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 25 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 22 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 109Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,430 haBaixa Grande do Ribeiro21 September 2024 · 6 days · 21 km away
- 6,965 haUruçuí13 September 2023 · 10 days · 23 km away
- 6,980 haUruçuíAugust 2017 · 7 days · 24 km away
- 12,295 haPalmeira do PiauíSeptember 2025 · 25 days · 27 km away
- 16,263 haPalmeira do Piauí12 September 2026 · 12 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Uruçuí fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 August 2024 and 29 August 2024: 4 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 4,134 hectares (41.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Uruçuí (3,242 ha, 0.4 %); Palmeira do Piauí (922 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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
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.