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Ile fire, September 2020 Ile, Alto Molocue

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2020, 10:40 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2020 in Ile, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 18,502 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 82th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 10 in Mozambique in 2020, of 193.

Burnt area
18,502ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
12 Sept 2020 – 22 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
12 Sept
2020
Heat detections
1,323
in a single hotspot: 99 MW
Danger at start
8
Low · FWI index
Energy released
6.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept22 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1213141516171819202122

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
42km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

57% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,319 ha in 2016, 5,105 ha in 2017, 3,986 ha in 2018, 2,246 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,496 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ile where it started
    12,253 ha reached on 8 Sept
    4.2 %
  2. Alto Molocue
    6,350 ha reached on 8 Sept
    1.0 %

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)
8 Sept 24.2 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
9 Sept 26.1 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
10 Sept 27.2 °C 43 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
11 Sept 27.1 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
12 Sept 26.3 °C 48 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 13
13 Sept 27.7 °C 46 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
14 Sept 32.0 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
15 Sept 32.8 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
16 Sept 31.6 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
17 Sept 33.4 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
18 Sept 30.6 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
19 Sept 30.6 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
20 Sept 32.5 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
21 Sept 31.8 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Sept 29.1 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
23 Sept after 25.5 °C 54 % 39 km/h 3.0 mm Very low 5
24 Sept after 28.1 °C 40 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 12
25 Sept after 31.8 °C 29 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
26 Sept after 33.5 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Sept after 34.0 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Sept after 34.0 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Sept after 33.7 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
30 Sept after 32.9 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Oct after 34.1 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
2 Oct after 35.6 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Oct after 34.7 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Oct after 33.8 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Oct after 31.7 °C 44 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
6 Oct after 28.0 °C 50 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
7 Oct after 28.8 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
8 Oct after 28.7 °C 46 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
9 Oct after 31.5 °C 38 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 23

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Sept 2020
After · 29 Sept 2020

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 · 1,323Every 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 12 September 2020 and 22 September 2020: 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 18,502 hectares (185.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ile (12,253 ha, 4.2 %); Alto Molocue (6,350 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.