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Bárue fire, 10 September 2017 Bárue, Macossa

Out · last detection 16 Sept 2017, 11:43 UTC

The fire started on 10 September 2017 in Bárue, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,005 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 198th largest in Manica since 2016 (of 198 with a page). Number 195 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
3,005ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
10 Sept 2017 – 16 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
10 Sept
2017
Heat detections
67
in a single hotspot: 87 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Sept16 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

10111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
32km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

22% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 651 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Bárue where it started
    2,539 ha reached on 7 Sept
    0.4 %
  2. Macossa
    487 ha reached on 7 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)
10 Sept 30.1 °C 38 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Sept 30.1 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Sept 30.8 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Sept 31.7 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
14 Sept 33.1 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Sept 29.4 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Sept 31.1 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Sept after 34.2 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Sept after 29.3 °C 40 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Sept after 28.4 °C 46 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
20 Sept after 27.7 °C 50 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
21 Sept after 27.9 °C 42 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
22 Sept after 29.6 °C 40 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 Sept after 34.6 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Sept after 26.2 °C 50 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm High 32
25 Sept after 30.2 °C 40 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
26 Sept after 36.2 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Sept 2017
After · 23 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 · 67Every 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 10 September 2017 and 16 September 2017: 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 3,005 hectares (30.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bárue (2,539 ha, 0.4 %); Macossa (487 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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.