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Uruçuí fire, 10 September 2026 Uruçuí

Out · last detection 21 Sept 2026, 16:37 UTC

The fire started on 10 September 2026 in Uruçuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,886 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 527th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 803 with a page). Number 519 in Brazil in 2026, of 747.

Burnt area
3,886ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
10 Sept 2026 – 21 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
10 Sept
2026
Heat detections
106
in a single hotspot: 67 MW
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
909MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Sept21 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

12131415161718192021

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
50km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.4 mm on 3 Oct.

This area had burned before

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 198 ha in 2016, 355 ha in 2017, 49 ha in 2018, 2,690 ha in 2019, 1,206 ha in 2021, 1,066 ha in 2022, 2,893 ha in 2023, 1,367 ha in 2024, 2,026 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,537 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Uruçuí 25,203 inhabitants where it started
    3,909 ha reached on 12 Sept
    0.5 %

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)
10 Sept 35.3 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
11 Sept 35.4 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
12 Sept 36.3 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Sept 37.7 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 Sept 36.9 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Sept 37.2 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 Sept 38.2 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
17 Sept 36.8 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
18 Sept 36.0 °C 27 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Sept 36.9 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
20 Sept 34.9 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 Sept 37.7 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Sept after 38.0 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Sept after 37.2 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Sept after 37.2 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Sept after 34.5 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
26 Sept after 36.7 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Sept after 38.2 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
28 Sept after 36.8 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Sept after 36.5 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Sept after 38.2 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Oct after 36.8 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 41
2 Oct after 34.8 °C 40 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Oct after 27.5 °C 71 % 22 km/h 4.4 mm Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Sept 2026
After · 28 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 22 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 68 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 39: 2.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak68 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1068 µg/m³
Optical depth0.61
89101112131415161718192021222324
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 · 106Every 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 10 September 2026 and 21 September 2026: 12 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 3,886 hectares (38.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Uruçuí (3,909 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 50 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
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.