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Liúpo fire, 15 October 2017 Liúpo, Angoche

Out · last detection 27 Oct 2017, 10:34 UTC

The fire started on 15 October 2017 in Liúpo, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,656 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 37th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 393 with a page). Number 20 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
11,656ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
15 Oct 2017 – 27 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
15 Oct
2017
Heat detections
366
in a single hotspot: 101 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Oct27 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1518192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
45km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.6 mm on 29 Oct.

This area had burned before

45% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,238 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Liúpo where it started
    10,604 ha reached on 15 Oct
    5.0 %
  2. Angoche
    1,116 ha reached on 20 Oct
    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)
15 Oct 30.4 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
16 Oct 33.9 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Oct 36.7 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Oct 37.0 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Oct 35.5 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Oct 36.6 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Oct 34.1 °C 44 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
22 Oct 35.1 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Oct 33.5 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Oct 34.2 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Oct 35.3 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Oct 37.2 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Oct 37.3 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Oct after 33.4 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
29 Oct after 29.2 °C 56 % 49 km/h 2.6 mm Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Oct 2017
After · 3 Nov 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 · 366Every 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 Liúpo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 October 2017 and 27 October 2017: 13 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 11,656 hectares (116.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Liúpo (10,604 ha, 5.0 %); Angoche (1,116 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.