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MZ · Mozambique · →

Cuamba fire, September 2017 Cuamba

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2017, 10:41 UTC

The fire started on 6 September 2017 in Cuamba, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,134 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 512th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 172 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
3,134ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
6 Sept 2017 – 13 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
6 Sept
2017
Heat detections
105
in a single hotspot: 101 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Sept13 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

67891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
41km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuamba where it started
    3,149 ha reached on 5 Sept
    0.6 %

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)
6 Sept 29.1 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Sept 29.3 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Sept 30.6 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Sept 30.5 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
10 Sept 30.1 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Sept 30.6 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Sept 31.3 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Sept 31.7 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
14 Sept after 31.8 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Sept after 32.1 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Sept after 31.4 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Sept after 32.9 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Sept after 32.5 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Sept after 31.5 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Sept after 33.2 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Sept after 31.6 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Sept after 32.8 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Sept after 31.6 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Aug 2017
After · 20 Sept 2017

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 · 105Every 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 Cuamba fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 September 2017 and 13 September 2017: 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 3,134 hectares (31.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cuamba (3,149 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.7 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.