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Bárue fire, 13 September 2016 Bárue, Manica

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2016, 11:30 UTC

The fire started on 13 September 2016 in Bárue, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,220 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 93th largest in Manica since 2016 (of 198 with a page). Number 101 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

Burnt area
4,220ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
13 Sept 2016 – 19 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
13 Sept
2016
Heat detections
259
in a single hotspot: 86 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
3.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Sept19 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

131516171819

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
34km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone one day 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. Bárue where it started
    4,252 ha reached on 13 Sept
    0.7 %
  2. Manica
    3 ha reached on 15 Sept
    0.0 %

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)
13 Sept 29.2 °C 38 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
14 Sept 26.6 °C 46 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
15 Sept 30.1 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
16 Sept 32.5 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Sept 34.5 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Sept 30.0 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm High 32
19 Sept 26.3 °C 48 % 30 km/h 0.6 mm High 22
20 Sept after 25.6 °C 49 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
21 Sept after 29.3 °C 35 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
22 Sept after 31.5 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Sept after 33.9 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Sept after 32.2 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Sept after 32.3 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Sept after 28.8 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Sept after 31.4 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Sept after 35.0 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Sept after 31.7 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Sept 2016
After · 26 Sept 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 · 259Every 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 Bárue fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 September 2016 and 19 September 2016: 7 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 4,220 hectares (42.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bárue (4,252 ha, 0.7 %); Manica (3 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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.