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Guro fire, 5 October 2016 Guro

Out · last detection 12 Oct 2016, 10:59 UTC

The fire started on 5 October 2016 in Guro, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,303 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 59th largest in Manica since 2016 (of 198 with a page). Number 75 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

The power measured by the satellite is low (28.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
5,303ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
5 Oct 2016 – 12 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
5 Oct
2016
Heat detections
217
in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Oct12 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

567891012

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
54km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Guro where it started
    5,330 ha reached on 28 Sept
    0.8 %

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)
5 Oct 30.8 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Oct 34.9 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Oct 39.2 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
8 Oct 37.7 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
9 Oct 37.4 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
10 Oct 38.1 °C 21 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
11 Oct 35.2 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
12 Oct 38.6 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
13 Oct after 35.1 °C 27 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
14 Oct after 33.1 °C 31 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Oct after 32.8 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Oct after 37.6 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Oct after 40.0 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
18 Oct after 34.6 °C 29 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
19 Oct after 34.1 °C 31 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
20 Oct after 35.1 °C 31 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Oct after 35.0 °C 28 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Oct after 38.8 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Sept 2016
After · 19 Oct 2016

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 · 217Every 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 Guro fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 October 2016 and 12 October 2016: 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 5,303 hectares (53.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Guro (5,330 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 71, class Very extreme.
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.