Bárue fire, 8 September 2022 Bárue
The fire started on 8 September 2022 in Bárue, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,427 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 22th largest in Manica since 2016 (of 198 with a page). Number 34 in Mozambique in 2022, of 206.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Bárue · 2016Bárue · 2021Bárue · 2018Bárue · 2019
- Burnt area
- 9,427ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 8 Sept 2022 – 22 Sept 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 8 Sept
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 299
- in a single hotspot: 107 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 325MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,108 ha in 2016, 2,585 ha in 2017, 3,025 ha in 2018, 4,052 ha in 2019, 1,179 ha in 2020, 4,095 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,291 ha that had burned before.
- 3,654 ha Bárue fire, September 2016 11,541 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,393 ha Bárue fire, September 2021 5,150 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,442 ha Bárue fire, September 2018 3,388 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,404 ha Bárue fire, August 2019 8,166 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,090 ha Bárue fire, September 2017 3,303 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 474 ha Bárue fire, October 2021 3,822 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 157 ha Bárue fire, September 2017 3,467 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 47 ha Bárue fire, September 2017 3,005 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Bárue where it started9,496 ha reached on 5 Sept1.6 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Sept | 31.0 °C | 25 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 6 Sept | 29.3 °C | 29 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 7 Sept | 25.5 °C | 46 % | 36 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 8 Sept | 24.4 °C | 45 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 9 Sept | 27.8 °C | 37 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 10 Sept | 29.2 °C | 25 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 11 Sept | 31.2 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 12 Sept | 31.7 °C | 24 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 13 Sept | 28.4 °C | 33 % | 39 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 38 |
| 14 Sept | 23.2 °C | 56 % | 40 km/h | 1.8 mm | Low 11 |
| 15 Sept | 26.4 °C | 38 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 16 Sept | 30.3 °C | 31 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 17 Sept | 29.9 °C | 31 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 18 Sept | 31.9 °C | 26 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 19 Sept | 34.8 °C | 21 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 20 Sept | 35.9 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 21 Sept | 31.7 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 22 Sept | 32.8 °C | 32 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 23 Sept after | 32.3 °C | 32 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 24 Sept after | 32.2 °C | 31 % | 33 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 34 |
| 25 Sept after | 31.8 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 26 Sept after | 32.6 °C | 29 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 27 Sept after | 33.3 °C | 28 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 28 Sept after | 29.9 °C | 35 % | 43 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 38 |
| 29 Sept after | 30.0 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 30 Sept after | 30.9 °C | 28 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 1 Oct after | 32.4 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 2 Oct after | 32.1 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 3 Oct after | 34.0 °C | 22 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 4 Oct after | 35.7 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 5 Oct after | 33.8 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 6 Oct after | 34.9 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 7 Oct after | 36.0 °C | 17 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 8 Oct after | 30.9 °C | 37 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 299Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 11,541 haBárue12 September 2016 · 18 days · 5 km away
- 14,805 haBárue21 August 2026 · 15 days · 10 km away
- 13,764 haBárue9 September 2022 · 16 days · 12 km away
- 25,445 haBárue5 September 2016 · 18 days · 19 km away
- 13,314 haBárue11 September 2026 · 18 days · 21 km away
- 30,185 haMacossa29 August 2025 · 25 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bárue fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 September 2022 and 22 September 2022: 15 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 9,427 hectares (94.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bárue (9,496 ha, 1.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 299 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.