Skip to content
worldfires
MZ · Mozambique · →

Bárue fire, 15 October 2017 Bárue

Out · last detection 21 Oct 2017, 10:46 UTC

The fire started on 15 October 2017 in Bárue, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,218 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 18th largest in Manica since 2016 (of 198 with a page). Number 25 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
10,218ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
15 Oct 2017 – 20 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
15 Oct
2017
Heat detections
496
in a single hotspot: 134 MW
Danger at start
15
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
5.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Oct20 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

151617192021

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
50km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.7 mm on 27 Oct.

This area had burned before

46% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,035 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,690 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Bárue where it started
    10,290 ha reached on 12 Oct
    1.8 %

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)
12 Oct 28.7 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
13 Oct 26.7 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 20
14 Oct 23.9 °C 48 % 31 km/h 2.8 mm Very low 4
15 Oct 31.2 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
16 Oct 37.2 °C 14 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Oct 40.0 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Oct 24.8 °C 52 % 50 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 21
19 Oct 29.3 °C 50 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
20 Oct 34.7 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
21 Oct after 30.9 °C 46 % 35 km/h 4.3 mm Very low 5
22 Oct after 28.7 °C 51 % 36 km/h 2.8 mm Very low 4
23 Oct after 31.2 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
24 Oct after 31.8 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
25 Oct after 33.5 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
26 Oct after 37.5 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
27 Oct after 32.1 °C 40 % 43 km/h 8.7 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Oct 2017
After · 27 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 · 496Every 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 20 October 2017: 6 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 10,218 hectares (102.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bárue (10,290 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.