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Bárue fire, 3 September 2018 Bárue, Macossa

Out · last detection 13 Sept 2018, 11:55 UTC

The fire started on 3 September 2018 in Bárue, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,887 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 24th largest in Manica since 2016 (of 198 with a page). Number 35 in Mozambique in 2018, of 220.

Burnt area
8,887ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
3 Sept 2018 – 12 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
3 Sept
2018
Heat detections
427
in a single hotspot: 182 MW
Danger at start
20
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
7.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Sept12 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

345678910111213

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
38km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,868 ha in 2016, 2,882 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,706 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Bárue where it started
    8,944 ha reached on 3 Sept
    1.5 %
  2. Macossa
    0 ha
    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)
3 Sept 31.5 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
4 Sept 32.1 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
5 Sept 31.9 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
6 Sept 31.8 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
7 Sept 31.9 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
8 Sept 33.1 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
9 Sept 31.0 °C 33 % 35 km/h 3.9 mm Low 9
10 Sept 22.7 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
11 Sept 25.7 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
12 Sept 28.1 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
13 Sept after 31.3 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
14 Sept after 32.2 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
15 Sept after 32.4 °C 22 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
16 Sept after 32.1 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Sept after 33.1 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 Sept after 33.9 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Sept after 33.6 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Sept after 33.5 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Sept after 28.8 °C 45 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
22 Sept after 29.6 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 26

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Aug 2018
After · 19 Sept 2018

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 · 427Every 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 3 September 2018 and 12 September 2018: 10 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 8,887 hectares (88.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bárue (8,944 ha, 1.5 %); Macossa (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.