How long did the Funhalouro fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 August 2018 and 11 September 2018: 19 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 13,196 hectares (132.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Funhalouro (13,274 ha, 1.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.

MZ · Mozambique · 2018-08-24 → 2018-09-11

Funhalouro fire, 24 August 2018 Funhalouro

Out · last detection 11 Sept 2018, 10:51 UTC

The fire started on 24 August 2018 in Funhalouro, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,196 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the largest fire in Inhambane since 2016 (of 26 with a page). Number 16 in Mozambique in 2018, of 220.

Burnt area: 13,196ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 19days; 24 Aug 2018 – 11 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 24 Aug; 2018
Heat detections: 671; in a single hotspot: 261 MW
Danger at start: 32; High · FWI index
Energy released: 12.5GW; sum of detected power

Play back 11 Sept 2018

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Aug11 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

24252627282930311234567811

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

The weather it burned in

35°high

55km/h · peak gust

29%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

10% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,221 ha in 2016, 73 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

Funhalouro where it started

13,274 ha reached on 24 Aug

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)
24 Aug	30.2 °C	32 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
25 Aug	29.7 °C	39 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
26 Aug	31.1 °C	33 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
27 Aug	28.0 °C	50 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
28 Aug	27.3 °C	35 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
29 Aug	26.2 °C	34 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
30 Aug	26.7 °C	39 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
31 Aug	27.3 °C	46 %	27 km/h	0.1 mm	High 26
1 Sept	29.4 °C	36 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
2 Sept	31.5 °C	32 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
3 Sept	32.3 °C	37 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
4 Sept	33.0 °C	40 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
5 Sept	34.1 °C	35 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
6 Sept	33.3 °C	35 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
7 Sept	32.7 °C	34 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
8 Sept	31.5 °C	40 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
9 Sept	23.4 °C	83 %	44 km/h	25.0 mm	Very low 0
10 Sept	23.6 °C	46 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 6
11 Sept	26.2 °C	40 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 11
12 Sept after	28.8 °C	39 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
13 Sept after	29.9 °C	40 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
14 Sept after	30.1 °C	46 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
15 Sept after	31.9 °C	40 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
16 Sept after	30.2 °C	45 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
17 Sept after	32.7 °C	37 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
18 Sept after	34.9 °C	29 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
19 Sept after	35.2 °C	26 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
20 Sept after	31.4 °C	44 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
21 Sept after	31.1 °C	45 %	28 km/h	0.1 mm	High 28
22 Sept after	32.0 °C	40 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
23 Sept after	31.3 °C	41 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
24 Sept after	32.7 °C	33 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
25 Sept after	33.0 °C	27 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
26 Sept after	34.9 °C	34 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
27 Sept after	34.3 °C	34 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
28 Sept after	34.6 °C	31 %	44 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.

↔

Before · 17 Aug 2018

After · 18 Sept 2018

Before After

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 · 671Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mozambique ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Funhalouro fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 August 2018 and 11 September 2018: 19 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 13,196 hectares (132.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Funhalouro (13,274 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.

Where it burned