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Uruçuí fire, 14 September 2026 Uruçuí, Ribeiro Gonçalves, Baixa Grande do Ribeiro

Out · last detection 1 Oct 2026, 16:50 UTC

The fire started on 14 September 2026 in Uruçuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 18,565 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 32th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 803 with a page). Number 40 in Brazil in 2026, of 747.

Burnt area
18,565ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
14 Sept 2026 – 1 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
14 Sept
2026
Heat detections
356
in a single hotspot: 78 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Oct 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Sept1 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1416171819202122232425301

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
48km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,028 ha in 2016, 3,617 ha in 2017, 1,958 ha in 2018, 2,022 ha in 2019, 1,113 ha in 2021, 721 ha in 2022, 1,508 ha in 2023, 7,438 ha in 2024, 2,056 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 13,127 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Uruçuí 25,203 inhabitants where it started
    15,450 ha reached on 14 Sept
    1.8 %
  2. Ribeiro Gonçalves
    2,439 ha reached on 19 Sept
    0.6 %
  3. Baixa Grande do Ribeiro 13,272 inhabitants
    795 ha reached on 22 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)
14 Sept 36.0 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Sept 36.5 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Sept 38.3 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Sept 36.7 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Sept 35.2 °C 28 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Sept 36.2 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Sept 34.2 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
21 Sept 37.1 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Sept 36.7 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Sept 37.0 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Sept 36.7 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Sept 33.7 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
26 Sept 35.8 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Sept 37.4 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Sept 36.3 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Sept 36.7 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Sept 38.5 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
1 Oct 36.3 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Oct after 33.4 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Sept 2026
After · 8 Oct 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 23 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 41 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak41 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1042 µg/m³
Optical depth0.48
121314151617181920212223242526272829301
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 · 356Every 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 14 September 2026 to 1 October 2026 (18 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 September 2026 to 24 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 18,565 hectares (185.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Uruçuí (15,450 ha, 1.8 %); Ribeiro Gonçalves (2,439 ha, 0.6 %); Baixa Grande do Ribeiro (795 ha, 0.1 %).
Is the Uruçuí fire still active?
No fire detections since 1 Oct 2026, 16:50 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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
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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.