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Bárue fire, 15 October 2017 Bárue

Out · last detection 18 Oct 2017, 11:43 UTC

The fire started on 15 October 2017 in Bárue, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,285 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 157th largest in Manica since 2016 (of 198 with a page). Number 156 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
3,285ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
15 Oct 2017 – 18 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
15 Oct
2017
Heat detections
135
in a single hotspot: 75 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Oct18 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

15161718

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
55km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.1 mm on 27 Oct.

This area had burned before

8% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 273 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Bárue where it started
    3,299 ha reached on 12 Oct
    0.6 %

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 Oct 32.5 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Oct 36.9 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Oct 39.8 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Oct 29.1 °C 31 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Oct after 30.6 °C 46 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
20 Oct after 35.3 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
21 Oct after 32.6 °C 35 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Oct after 29.7 °C 46 % 52 km/h 0.3 mm High 31
23 Oct after 32.6 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Oct after 33.4 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Oct after 34.5 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Oct after 37.4 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Oct after 34.6 °C 32 % 54 km/h 3.1 mm High 23

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Oct 2017
After · 25 Oct 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 · 135Every 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 15 October 2017 and 18 October 2017: 4 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 3,285 hectares (32.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bárue (3,299 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.