Gurué fire, August 2016 Gurué, Molumbo, Cuamba
The fire started on 19 August 2016 in Gurué, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,450 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 224th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 37 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.
- Burnt area
- 7,450ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 19 Aug 2016 – 29 Aug 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 19 Aug
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 254
- in a single hotspot: 61 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.3GW
- 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 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
-
Gurué where it started6,225 ha reached on 19 Aug1.1 %
-
1,235 ha reached on 19 Aug0.3 %
-
26 ha reached on 19 Aug0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Aug | 25.6 °C | 38 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 20 Aug | 28.6 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 21 Aug | 28.2 °C | 33 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 22 Aug | 29.1 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 23 Aug | 29.3 °C | 23 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 24 Aug | 22.9 °C | 54 % | 52 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 25 Aug | 23.8 °C | 36 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 26 Aug | 25.8 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 27 Aug | 23.8 °C | 38 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 28 Aug | 25.3 °C | 40 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 29 Aug | 26.8 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 30 Aug after | 27.5 °C | 31 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 31 Aug after | 26.9 °C | 27 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 1 Sept after | 25.7 °C | 27 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 2 Sept after | 24.9 °C | 31 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 3 Sept after | 25.4 °C | 34 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 4 Sept after | 26.8 °C | 32 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 5 Sept after | 26.6 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Sept after | 27.7 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 7 Sept after | 28.2 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 8 Sept after | 29.7 °C | 30 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
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 · 254Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 11,093 haGurué18 August 2026 · 18 days · 31 km away
- 21,565 haNamarrói14 September 2016 · 13 days · 37 km away
- 20,261 haGurué12 September 2017 · 9 days · 37 km away
- 11,909 haGurué9 September 2017 · 15 days · 37 km away
- 8,051 haGurué1 September 2026 · 10 days · 37 km away
- 8,625 haGurué18 September 2018 · 5 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Gurué fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 August 2016 and 29 August 2016: 11 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 7,450 hectares (74.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Gurué (6,225 ha, 1.1 %); Molumbo (1,235 ha, 0.3 %); Cuamba (26 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.3 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 52 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.
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.