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Gurué fire, 9 September 2017 Gurué

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2017, 11:12 UTC

The fire started on 9 September 2017 in Gurué, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,909 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 136th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 845 with a page). Number 18 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
11,909ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
9 Sept 2017 – 23 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
9 Sept
2017
Heat detections
454
in a single hotspot: 141 MW
Danger at start
21
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Sept23 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

91011121314151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
52km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 2 Oct.

This area had burned before

16% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,902 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Gurué where it started
    11,968 ha reached on 6 Sept
    2.1 %

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 Sept 25.8 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
7 Sept 28.0 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
8 Sept 29.2 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
9 Sept 28.4 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Sept 27.6 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Sept 28.2 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Sept 28.6 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Sept 29.5 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
14 Sept 29.9 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
15 Sept 28.8 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Sept 29.3 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Sept 31.2 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Sept 30.2 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Sept 29.4 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Sept 30.4 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Sept 27.8 °C 40 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Sept 29.2 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Sept 29.8 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Sept after 26.5 °C 39 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Sept after 29.2 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
26 Sept after 31.1 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Sept after 31.4 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Sept after 30.6 °C 26 % 49 km/h 0.5 mm High 38
29 Sept after 26.1 °C 52 % 52 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
30 Sept after 27.0 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
1 Oct after 27.3 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 19
2 Oct after 27.1 °C 49 % 25 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 13

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Sept 2017
After · 30 Sept 2017

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 · 454Every 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 Gurué fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 September 2017 and 23 September 2017: 15 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 11,909 hectares (119.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Gurué (11,968 ha, 2.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.

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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.