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Balama fire, 18 August 2017 Balama

Out · last detection 31 Aug 2017, 11:44 UTC

The fire started on 18 August 2017 in Balama, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,147 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 19th largest in Cabo Delgado since 2016 (of 120 with a page). Number 51 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
6,147ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
18 Aug 2017 – 30 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
18 Aug
2017
Heat detections
228
in a single hotspot: 40 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Aug30 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

182122232425262728293031

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
52km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,532 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Balama where it started
    6,185 ha reached on 15 Aug
    1.1 %

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)
18 Aug 29.5 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
19 Aug 27.8 °C 47 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm High 31
20 Aug 25.0 °C 50 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Aug 27.0 °C 40 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Aug 27.1 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
23 Aug 29.9 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
24 Aug 29.2 °C 41 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
25 Aug 30.5 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
26 Aug 29.0 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Aug 27.7 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Aug 27.4 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Aug 26.6 °C 35 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Aug 27.7 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 Aug after 27.3 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Sept after 29.5 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Sept after 28.9 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Sept after 27.5 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Sept after 27.4 °C 33 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
5 Sept after 27.9 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Sept after 29.3 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Sept after 29.1 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Sept after 30.8 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Sept after 29.6 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Aug 2017
After · 6 Sept 2017

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 · 228Every 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 18 August 2017 and 30 August 2017: 13 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 6,147 hectares (61.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Balama (6,185 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.5 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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.