Skip to content
worldfires
MZ · Mozambique · →

Gilé fire, August 2023 Gilé

Out · last detection 27 Aug 2023, 11:38 UTC

The fire started on 22 August 2023 in Gilé, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,363 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 676th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 99 in Mozambique in 2023, of 128.

Burnt area
3,363ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
22 Aug 2023 – 27 Aug 2023
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
22 Aug
2023
Heat detections
114
in a single hotspot: 82 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Aug 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Aug27 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2223242627

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
42km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.1 mm on 28 Aug.

This area had burned before

85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 28 ha in 2016, 100 ha in 2017, 828 ha in 2019, 1,527 ha in 2020, 1,067 ha in 2021, 664 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,843 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Gilé where it started
    3,386 ha reached on 18 Aug
    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)
22 Aug 31.8 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Aug 32.6 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Aug 31.9 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Aug 31.9 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Aug 33.0 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Aug 31.7 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.8 mm High 29
28 Aug after 24.6 °C 69 % 49 km/h 8.1 mm Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Aug 2023
After · 3 Sept 2023

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 · 114Every 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 22 August 2023 and 27 August 2023: 6 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 3,363 hectares (33.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Gilé (3,386 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 42 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

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.