How long did the Bárue fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 September 2016 and 22 September 2016: 18 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 25,445 hectares (254.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bárue (22,842 ha, 3.9 %); Macossa (2,750 ha, 0.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 42 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.

MZ · Mozambique · 2016-09-05 → 2016-09-22

Bárue fire, 5 September 2016 Bárue, Macossa

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2016, 23:06 UTC

The fire started on 5 September 2016 in Bárue, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 25,445 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Manica since 2016 (of 198 with a page). Number 7 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

Burnt area: 25,445ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 18days; 5 Sept 2016 – 22 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 5 Sept; 2016
Heat detections: 1,624; in a single hotspot: 159 MW
Danger at start: 20; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 21.4GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Sept 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Sept22 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

567891011121314151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

36°high

42km/h · peak gust

19%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 13.0 mm on 3 Oct.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Bárue where it started

22,842 ha reached on 29 Aug

3.9 %
Macossa

2,750 ha reached on 30 Aug

0.3 %

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)
29 Aug	27.5 °C	38 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
30 Aug	27.6 °C	37 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
31 Aug	26.7 °C	33 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
1 Sept	24.7 °C	43 %	33 km/h	0.1 mm	High 24
2 Sept	24.9 °C	40 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
3 Sept	25.8 °C	41 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
4 Sept	27.1 °C	43 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
5 Sept	28.6 °C	34 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
6 Sept	31.6 °C	32 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
7 Sept	31.4 °C	28 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
8 Sept	33.3 °C	26 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
9 Sept	33.7 °C	20 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
10 Sept	32.8 °C	20 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
11 Sept	27.7 °C	42 %	36 km/h	0.6 mm	High 29
12 Sept	28.9 °C	30 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
13 Sept	30.9 °C	31 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
14 Sept	28.0 °C	42 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
15 Sept	30.9 °C	33 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
16 Sept	33.6 °C	24 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
17 Sept	35.5 °C	23 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
18 Sept	31.8 °C	34 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
19 Sept	28.3 °C	40 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
20 Sept	27.9 °C	40 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
21 Sept	30.4 °C	34 %	28 km/h	0.1 mm	High 28
22 Sept	32.6 °C	22 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
23 Sept after	35.1 °C	19 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
24 Sept after	33.8 °C	21 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
25 Sept after	33.7 °C	24 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
26 Sept after	30.3 °C	30 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
27 Sept after	32.3 °C	26 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
28 Sept after	35.8 °C	21 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
29 Sept after	32.7 °C	28 %	37 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 41
30 Sept after	32.5 °C	26 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
1 Oct after	33.7 °C	21 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
2 Oct after	34.1 °C	28 %	52 km/h	0.9 mm	High 36
3 Oct after	21.3 °C	62 %	56 km/h	13.0 mm	Very low 2

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 29 Aug 2016

After · 29 Sept 2016

Before After

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 · 1,624Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mozambique ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bárue fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 September 2016 and 22 September 2016: 18 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 25,445 hectares (254.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bárue (22,842 ha, 3.9 %); Macossa (2,750 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 42 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned