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Gilé fire, 6 September 2017 Gilé

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2017, 10:40 UTC

The fire started on 6 September 2017 in Gilé, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,141 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 770th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 171 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
3,141ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
6 Sept 2017 – 13 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
6 Sept
2017
Heat detections
118
in a single hotspot: 59 MW
Danger at start
21
High · FWI index
Energy released
992MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Sept13 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

678910121314

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
37km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

50% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,592 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Gilé where it started
    3,164 ha reached on 6 Sept
    0.4 %

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 30.2 °C 44 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
7 Sept 30.7 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
8 Sept 31.7 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Sept 31.8 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Sept 31.1 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Sept 31.5 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Sept 31.8 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Sept 32.5 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Sept after 33.4 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Sept after 32.5 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 Sept after 32.3 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Sept after 34.1 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 Sept after 32.9 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Sept after 32.8 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Sept after 33.6 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Sept after 30.2 °C 48 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
22 Sept after 30.7 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 Sept after 33.1 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

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 · 118Every 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 Gilé 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 3,141 hectares (31.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Gilé (3,164 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.5 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.