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Chinde fire, 17 September 2022 Chinde, Luabo

Out · last detection 24 Sept 2022, 11:56 UTC

The fire started on 17 September 2022 in Chinde, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,399 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 665th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 158 in Mozambique in 2022, of 206.

The power measured by the satellite is low (20.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,399ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
17 Sept 2022 – 24 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
17 Sept
2022
Heat detections
168
in a single hotspot: 20 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
584MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Sept 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Sept24 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021222324

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
43km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 387 ha in 2016, 899 ha in 2017, 1,929 ha in 2018, 217 ha in 2019, 190 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,532 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chinde where it started
    2,025 ha reached on 10 Sept
    0.6 %
  2. Luabo
    1,391 ha reached on 11 Sept
    1.2 %

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)
17 Sept 31.7 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Sept 34.0 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Sept 36.7 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 Sept 36.9 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Sept 34.6 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Sept 34.4 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Sept 33.6 °C 42 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Sept 33.0 °C 40 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Sept after 32.8 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Sept after 35.6 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Sept after 35.1 °C 33 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Sept after 31.1 °C 43 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
29 Sept after 31.3 °C 48 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
30 Sept after 33.3 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Oct after 33.3 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Oct after 32.8 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Oct after 33.1 °C 45 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Oct after 36.2 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Sept 2022
After · 1 Oct 2022

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 · 168Every 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 Chinde fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 September 2022 and 24 September 2022: 8 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 3,399 hectares (34.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chinde (2,025 ha, 0.6 %); Luabo (1,391 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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

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.