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Lugela fire, 4 September 2016 Lugela

Out · last detection 16 Sept 2016, 10:47 UTC

The fire started on 4 September 2016 in Lugela, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,051 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 808th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 188 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

The power measured by the satellite is low (27.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,051ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
4 Sept 2016 – 15 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
4 Sept
2016
Heat detections
125
in a single hotspot: 28 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
881MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Sept15 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

45678910111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
38km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 20 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Lugela where it started
    3,072 ha reached on 1 Sept
    0.5 %

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)
4 Sept 31.4 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Sept 32.1 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Sept 33.0 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Sept 32.4 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Sept 34.6 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Sept 35.0 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Sept 35.5 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Sept 32.6 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Sept 31.7 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Sept 33.1 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Sept 31.7 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Sept 32.5 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Sept after 35.3 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
17 Sept after 36.3 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Sept after 34.8 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Sept after 32.5 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Sept after 29.0 °C 46 % 31 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 11

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Aug 2016
After · 22 Sept 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 · 125Every 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 Lugela fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 September 2016 and 15 September 2016: 12 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 3,051 hectares (30.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Lugela (3,072 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.