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Changara fire, October 2023 Changara

Out · last detection 29 Oct 2023, 23:06 UTC

The fire started on 23 October 2023 in Changara, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,907 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 23th largest in Tete since 2016 (of 114 with a page). Number 39 in Mozambique in 2023, of 128.

Burnt area
5,907ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
23 Oct 2023 – 29 Oct 2023
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
23 Oct
2023
Heat detections
213
in a single hotspot: 120 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Oct 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Oct29 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

23242526272829

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

The weather it burned in

43°high
53km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 8 Nov.

This area had burned before

69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 111 ha in 2018, 46 ha in 2019, 1,801 ha in 2020, 4,715 ha in 2021, 5,669 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,076 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Changara where it started
    5,937 ha reached on 23 Oct
    1.0 %

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)
23 Oct 39.6 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 41
24 Oct 38.3 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Oct 42.8 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
26 Oct 36.0 °C 36 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Oct 36.5 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Oct 38.4 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Oct 40.6 °C 21 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
30 Oct after 29.7 °C 52 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Oct after 29.2 °C 50 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Nov after 28.3 °C 52 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
2 Nov after 31.4 °C 41 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Nov after 32.8 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Nov after 33.4 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Nov after 36.2 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Nov after 38.7 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Nov after 39.9 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
8 Nov after 35.8 °C 39 % 48 km/h 1.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Oct 2023
After · 5 Nov 2023

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 · 213Every 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 Changara fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 October 2023 and 29 October 2023: 7 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 5,907 hectares (59.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Changara (5,937 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 42.8 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, class Extreme.
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.