Balama fire, July 2020 Balama
The fire started on 15 July 2020 in Balama, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,469 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 86th largest in Cabo Delgado since 2016 (of 120 with a page). Number 142 in Mozambique in 2020, of 193.
- Burnt area
- 3,469ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 15 Jul 2020 – 23 Jul 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 15 Jul
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 91
- in a single hotspot: 70 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.2GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,349 ha in 2016, 870 ha in 2017, 1,718 ha in 2018, 2,926 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,439 ha that had burned before.
- 2,926 ha Balama fire, August 2019 7,983 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 870 ha Balama fire, July 2017 3,571 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 614 ha Balama fire, August 2018 3,359 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 162 ha Balama fire, July 2016 3,879 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Balama where it started3,487 ha reached on 11 Jul0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Jul | 27.0 °C | 43 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 16 Jul | 22.5 °C | 45 % | 61 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 42 |
| 17 Jul | 23.0 °C | 48 % | 58 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 39 |
| 18 Jul | 25.7 °C | 39 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 19 Jul | 26.4 °C | 35 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 20 Jul | 25.8 °C | 36 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 21 Jul | 26.7 °C | 33 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 22 Jul | 25.0 °C | 39 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 23 Jul | 24.5 °C | 31 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 24 Jul after | 24.1 °C | 45 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 25 Jul after | 25.8 °C | 41 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 26 Jul after | 25.4 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 27 Jul after | 26.3 °C | 44 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 28 Jul after | 25.6 °C | 43 % | 43 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 34 |
| 29 Jul after | 27.3 °C | 36 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 30 Jul after | 27.2 °C | 43 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 31 Jul after | 25.8 °C | 32 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 1 Aug after | 24.7 °C | 42 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 2 Aug after | 24.8 °C | 55 % | 46 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 91Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Balama fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 July 2020 and 23 July 2020: 9 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 3,469 hectares (34.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Balama (3,487 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 27.0 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 61 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.
Report an error
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.