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MZ · Mozambique · →

Búzi fire, October 2020 Búzi

Out · last detection 27 Oct 2020, 11:23 UTC

The fire started on 18 October 2020 in Búzi, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,145 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 196th largest in Sofala since 2016 (of 214 with a page). Number 180 in Mozambique in 2020, of 193.

Burnt area
3,145ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
18 Oct 2020 – 26 Oct 2020
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
18 Oct
2020
Heat detections
130
in a single hotspot: 62 MW
Danger at start
19
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Oct 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Oct26 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

18192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
42km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 792 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Búzi where it started
    3,154 ha reached on 18 Oct
    0.4 %

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)
18 Oct 31.8 °C 43 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
19 Oct 33.4 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
20 Oct 36.7 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Oct 31.3 °C 57 % 42 km/h 2.0 mm Low 9
22 Oct 32.3 °C 41 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
23 Oct 33.5 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
24 Oct 32.7 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm High 22
25 Oct 33.7 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
26 Oct 34.2 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 23
27 Oct after 33.7 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
28 Oct after 34.2 °C 32 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Oct after 34.4 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Oct after 35.5 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
31 Oct after 32.8 °C 40 % 45 km/h 0.3 mm High 31
1 Nov after 30.7 °C 51 % 36 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 19
2 Nov after 31.5 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
3 Nov after 35.7 °C 35 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Nov after 34.8 °C 43 % 41 km/h 0.4 mm High 29
5 Nov after 36.0 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.7 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Oct 2020
After · 2 Nov 2020

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 · 130Every 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 Búzi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 October 2020 and 26 October 2020: 9 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 3,145 hectares (31.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Búzi (3,154 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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.