Gilé fire, 6 October 2021 Gilé
The fire started on 6 October 2021 in Gilé, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,712 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 584th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 151 in Mozambique in 2021, of 233.
- Burnt area
- 3,712ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 6 Oct 2021 – 10 Oct 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 6 Oct
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 167
- in a single hotspot: 81 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.2GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 11 Oct.
This area had burned before
89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,599 ha in 2016, 1,821 ha in 2017, 1,977 ha in 2018, 1,330 ha in 2019, 461 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,299 ha that had burned before.
- 1,886 ha Gilé fire, September 2018 25,284 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,355 ha Ribaué fire, September 2016 63,932 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 685 ha Gilé fire, September 2017 14,416 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 215 ha Ribaué fire, September 2017 53,154 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 153 ha Gilé fire, September 2020 3,509 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 17 ha Gilé fire, September 2019 5,983 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Gilé where it started3,725 ha reached on 29 Sept0.4 %
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 Oct | 30.7 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 7 Oct | 29.7 °C | 33 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 8 Oct | 27.6 °C | 32 % | 37 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 34 |
| 9 Oct | 31.7 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 10 Oct | 33.0 °C | 27 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 11 Oct after | 29.9 °C | 35 % | 45 km/h | 1.9 mm | High 22 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 167Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 70,839 haGilé8 September 2024 · 14 days · 4 km away
- 90,638 haGilé27 September 2022 · 18 days · 12 km away
- 32,621 haAlto Molocue29 September 2022 · 13 days · 19 km away
- 63,932 haRibaué9 September 2016 · 22 days · 24 km away
- 145,344 haRibaué23 August 2026 · 29 days · 25 km away
- 53,154 haRibaué6 September 2017 · 17 days · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Gilé fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 October 2021 and 10 October 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 3,712 hectares (37.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Gilé (3,725 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.
Report an error
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.