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MZ · Mozambique · →

Ile fire, September 2016 Ile, Alto Molocue

Out · last detection 29 Sept 2016, 11:43 UTC

The fire started on 21 September 2016 in Ile, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,857 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 292th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 845 with a page). Number 62 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

Burnt area
5,857ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
21 Sept 2016 – 28 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
21 Sept
2016
Heat detections
367
in a single hotspot: 191 MW
Danger at start
23
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Sept28 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

212223242526272829

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
40km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.0 mm on 3 Oct.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Ile where it started
    3,324 ha reached on 14 Sept
    1.1 %
  2. Alto Molocue
    2,566 ha reached on 14 Sept
    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)
21 Sept 29.3 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
22 Sept 31.2 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Sept 32.4 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Sept 33.0 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Sept 34.3 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Sept 29.9 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Sept 31.1 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Sept 32.4 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Sept after 30.8 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Sept after 32.5 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Oct after 33.1 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Oct after 32.8 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Oct after 28.7 °C 48 % 41 km/h 8.0 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Sept 2016
After · 5 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 · 367Every 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 Ile fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 September 2016 and 28 September 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 5,857 hectares (58.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ile (3,324 ha, 1.1 %); Alto Molocue (2,566 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.

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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.