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Gilé fire, 13 September 2018 Gilé, Alto Molocue

Out · last detection 30 Sept 2018, 11:37 UTC

The fire started on 13 September 2018 in Gilé, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 31,968 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 48th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 5 in Mozambique in 2018, of 220.

Burnt area
31,968ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
13 Sept 2018 – 29 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
13 Sept
2018
Heat detections
1,639
in a single hotspot: 204 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
18.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Sept29 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

131415161718192021222324252627282930

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
53km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 5 Oct.

This area had burned before

57% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11,928 ha in 2016, 11,718 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 18,355 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Gilé where it started
    24,696 ha reached on 13 Sept
    2.7 %
  2. Alto Molocue
    7,418 ha reached on 13 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)
13 Sept 31.5 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
14 Sept 32.9 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
15 Sept 33.8 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Sept 33.7 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Sept 33.0 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Sept 33.2 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Sept 33.2 °C 28 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Sept 33.6 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Sept 32.8 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Sept 30.9 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Sept 31.7 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Sept 32.0 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Sept 33.3 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Sept 35.0 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Sept 34.0 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Sept 33.9 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Sept 33.6 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
30 Sept after 29.1 °C 46 % 53 km/h 2.1 mm Moderate 17
1 Oct after 28.4 °C 52 % 45 km/h 3.7 mm Low 8
2 Oct after 29.7 °C 42 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 16
3 Oct after 33.4 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
4 Oct after 33.1 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Oct after 28.7 °C 45 % 35 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Sept 2018
After · 6 Oct 2018

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 · 1,639Every 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 13 September 2018 and 29 September 2018: 17 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 31,968 hectares (319.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gilé (24,696 ha, 2.7 %); Alto Molocue (7,418 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.