How long did the Uruçuí fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 September 2025 and 22 September 2025: 11 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 5,350 hectares (53.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Uruçuí (5,382 ha, 0.6 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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.

BR · Brazil · 2025-09-12 → 2025-09-22

Uruçuí fire, 12 September 2025 Uruçuí

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2025, 16:53 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2025 in Uruçuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,350 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 303th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 803 with a page). Number 313 in Brazil in 2025, of 714.

Burnt area: 5,350ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 11days; 12 Sept 2025 – 22 Sept 2025
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 12 Sept; 2025
Heat detections: 161; in a single hotspot: 47 MW
Danger at start: 55; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 1.4GW; sum of detected power

Play back 22 Sept 2025

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept22 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1213141516171819202122

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

47km/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

58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11 ha in 2016, 1,238 ha in 2017, 1,598 ha in 2019, 731 ha in 2020, 1,361 ha in 2021, 974 ha in 2023, 5 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,118 ha that had burned before.

9 ha Uruçuí fire, September 2019 3,321 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Uruçuí 25,203 inhabitants where it started

5,382 ha reached on 11 Sept

0.6 %

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)
11 Sept	39.2 °C	17 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
12 Sept	37.6 °C	16 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
13 Sept	36.8 °C	18 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
14 Sept	37.4 °C	17 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
15 Sept	38.3 °C	14 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 63
16 Sept	38.1 °C	18 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
17 Sept	38.9 °C	16 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
18 Sept	38.1 °C	22 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
19 Sept	37.5 °C	22 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
20 Sept	35.8 °C	24 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
21 Sept	37.5 °C	21 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
22 Sept	34.6 °C	38 %	31 km/h	0.4 mm	High 36
23 Sept after	38.3 °C	25 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
24 Sept after	37.4 °C	26 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
25 Sept after	37.2 °C	21 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
26 Sept after	36.3 °C	24 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
27 Sept after	36.3 °C	21 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
28 Sept after	37.0 °C	19 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
29 Sept after	37.7 °C	21 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
30 Sept after	37.8 °C	19 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
1 Oct after	37.9 °C	20 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
2 Oct after	38.2 °C	20 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 5 Sept 2025

After · 29 Sept 2025

Before After

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 · Copernicus

On 12 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 25 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak25 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1027 µg/m³

Optical depth0.54

WHO 15

8910111213141516171819202122232425

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 161Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Uruçuí fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 September 2025 and 22 September 2025: 11 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 5,350 hectares (53.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Uruçuí (5,382 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned