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Uruçuí fire, 22 August 2026 Uruçuí

Out · last detection 1 Sept 2026, 16:11 UTC

The fire started on 22 August 2026 in Uruçuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,823 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 376th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 803 with a page). Number 364 in Brazil in 2026, of 747.

Burnt area
4,823ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
22 Aug 2026 – 1 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
22 Aug
2026
Heat detections
85
in a single hotspot: 52 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Aug1 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

282930311

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
38km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 43 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 4 Sept.

This area had burned before

86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,353 ha in 2017, 1,584 ha in 2018, 2,626 ha in 2019, 167 ha in 2021, 195 ha in 2022, 1,652 ha in 2023, 1,482 ha in 2024, 536 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,153 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Uruçuí 25,203 inhabitants where it started
    4,852 ha reached on 28 Aug
    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)
28 Aug 35.5 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Aug 37.2 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Aug 36.8 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
31 Aug 36.5 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Sept 35.9 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
2 Sept after 36.2 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Sept after 35.8 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
4 Sept after 32.8 °C 44 % 29 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Aug 2026
After · 8 Sept 2026

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 28 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 34 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak34 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1036 µg/m³
Optical depth0.43
2627282930311234
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 · 85Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 22 August 2026 to 1 September 2026 (11 days). The perimeter dates it from 28 August 2026 to 1 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,823 hectares (48.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Uruçuí (4,852 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.