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Funhalouro fire, September 2021 Funhalouro

Out · last detection 16 Sept 2021, 11:48 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2021 in Funhalouro, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,099 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 22th largest in Inhambane since 2016 (of 26 with a page). Number 218 in Mozambique in 2021, of 233.

Burnt area
3,099ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
12 Sept 2021 – 16 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
12 Sept
2021
Heat detections
128
in a single hotspot: 170 MW
Danger at start
23
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept16 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1213141516

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
42km/h · peak gust
35%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

49% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,298 ha in 2017, 25 ha in 2018, 801 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,525 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Funhalouro where it started
    3,120 ha reached on 12 Sept
    0.2 %

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)
12 Sept 27.8 °C 42 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
13 Sept 30.1 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Sept 31.9 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Sept 33.9 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Sept 32.9 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Sept after 25.5 °C 73 % 50 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 20
18 Sept after 25.2 °C 39 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
19 Sept after 26.0 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
20 Sept after 28.6 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Sept after 29.5 °C 40 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Sept after 25.9 °C 41 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Sept after 25.1 °C 52 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
24 Sept after 29.3 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 Sept after 29.8 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
26 Sept after 32.1 °C 39 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Sept 2021
After · 23 Sept 2021

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 · 128Every 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 Funhalouro fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 September 2021 and 16 September 2021: 5 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 3,099 hectares (31.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Funhalouro (3,120 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.