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Balama fire, 17 August 2016 Balama

Out · last detection 23 Aug 2016, 11:38 UTC

The fire started on 17 August 2016 in Balama, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,674 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 74th largest in Cabo Delgado since 2016 (of 120 with a page). Number 132 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

Burnt area
3,674ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
17 Aug 2016 – 22 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
17 Aug
2016
Heat detections
99
in a single hotspot: 49 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
968MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Aug22 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

17181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
44km/h · peak gust
36%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Balama where it started
    3,695 ha reached on 13 Aug
    0.7 %

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)
17 Aug 29.3 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Aug 28.7 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Aug 27.5 °C 43 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 Aug 29.3 °C 39 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Aug 28.8 °C 36 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Aug 29.5 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 Aug after 29.6 °C 37 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
24 Aug after 27.4 °C 37 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
25 Aug after 26.6 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Aug after 27.3 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Aug after 27.3 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Aug after 27.1 °C 39 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Aug after 25.7 °C 50 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
30 Aug after 28.2 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
31 Aug after 27.6 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Sept after 24.9 °C 45 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Aug 2016
After · 29 Aug 2016

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 99Every 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 Mozambique ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Balama fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 August 2016 and 22 August 2016: 6 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 3,674 hectares (36.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Balama (3,695 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.5 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Mozambique (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.

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.

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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.