Burned area
satellite only24,423ha
Union of 4 GWIS (Copernicus) perimeters: overlapping areas count once.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 4 Oct 2020 – 28 Oct 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
MZ · Mozambique · –
Lugela fire, 4 October 2020 Lugela
Out · last detection 29 Oct 2020, 10:46 UTC
The fire started on 4 October 2020 in Lugela, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 25 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 24,423 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 36th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 564 with a page). Number 8 in Mozambique in 2020, of 193.
Use this data
Compare with…
Suggestions: Mocuba · 2022Mocuba · 2018Lugela · 2026Mocuba · 2018
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-11-05matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only25days
4 Oct 2020 to 28 Oct 2020: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 29 Oct 2020, 10:46 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only4 Oct 2020
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 4 Oct 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
The worst day
satellite only6,319MW
Total radiative power on 19 October 2020; hotspots that day: 351.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 19 Oct 2020
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model36.9FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 10.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 4 Oct 2020, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model38.4°C · 29% RH
High of 38.4 °C and minimum humidity of 29% on 10 October 2020; gusts of 42 km/h on 22 October 2020.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 4 Oct 2020 – 28 Oct 2020
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 3,800people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 14 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2020).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
logArea: 25,003 → 24,423 ha.
-
logLast day with fire: 30 October 2020 → 28 October 2020.
-
logStart date: 27 September 2020 → 4 October 2020.
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 28 October 2020 → 30 October 2020.
-
logStart date: 4 October 2020 → 27 September 2020.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
Area logged each night
Move the slider to see which area the page published each day.
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/lugela-2020-10?v=2026-11-05A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire lugela-2020-10.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-10-04 | 40 | 507 | 36.5 | 20 | 31 | 16.1 | 34.9 | 0 | 36.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-05 | 2 | 10 | 32 | 22.3 | 41 | 16.5 | 34.9 | 0 | 30.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-06 | 15 | 78 | 28.6 | 21 | 47 | 13.6 | 31 | 0.4 | 24.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-07 | 76 | 1,107 | 29.9 | 19.4 | 39 | 17.6 | 41 | 0 | 27.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-08 | 48 | 407 | 30 | 18.9 | 42 | 14 | 29.5 | 0 | 25.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-09 | 7 | 88 | 32.9 | 18.4 | 36 | 10.7 | 25.2 | 0 | 24.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-10 | 62 | 702 | 38.4 | 20.1 | 29 | 9.4 | 23.8 | 0 | 29.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-11 | 204 | 3,040 | 36.3 | 23.1 | 36 | 14.5 | 33.8 | 5.8 | 10.7 | bajo | 1 |
| 2020-10-12 | 0 | 0 | 29.1 | 21.7 | 58 | 15.6 | 35.3 | 3.9 | 4.5 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2020-10-13 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 21 | 60 | 10.3 | 25.2 | 0.5 | 6.7 | bajo | 1 |
| 2020-10-14 | 1 | 1 | 28.4 | 20 | 45 | 16.6 | 35.6 | 0 | 15.8 | moderado | 1 |
| 2020-10-15 | 1 | 11 | 28.8 | 19.3 | 42 | 14.1 | 35.6 | 0.7 | 16.3 | moderado | 1 |
| 2020-10-16 | 123 | 1,075 | 33.1 | 18.2 | 32 | 16.5 | 35.6 | 0 | 25.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-17 | 118 | 1,241 | 32.4 | 20.4 | 36 | 14.7 | 30.6 | 0.2 | 24.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-18 | 139 | 2,296 | 33.1 | 18.2 | 29 | 12 | 24.8 | 0 | 25.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-19 | 351 | 6,319 | 35.1 | 16.9 | 20 | 15 | 32.4 | 0 | 34.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-20 | 55 | 1,538 | 35.6 | 19 | 23 | 13.8 | 30.2 | 0 | 34.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-21 | 55 | 633 | 37.8 | 22.5 | 19 | 18.6 | 40.3 | 0 | 41.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-22 | 86 | 915 | 34.1 | 20.9 | 28 | 16.8 | 42.5 | 0 | 38.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-23 | 61 | 715 | 33.4 | 20.4 | 30 | 16 | 37.1 | 0 | 36.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-24 | 2 | 10 | 34.2 | 19.2 | 29 | 15.3 | 36.7 | 0 | 36.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-25 | 5 | 47 | 34.3 | 20.2 | 32 | 15.5 | 32.8 | 0 | 35.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-26 | 31 | 173 | 35.3 | 22 | 28 | 16.4 | 37.1 | 0 | 37.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-27 | 27 | 253 | 34.2 | 21.4 | 34 | 17.5 | 39.6 | 0 | 37.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-28 | 12 | 71 | 35.5 | 22.5 | 29 | 17.1 | 42.5 | 0 | 37.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-29 | 7 | 65 | 36.4 | 20.9 | 26 | 17.4 | 39.2 | 0 | 38.6 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-10-30 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 21.8 | 28 | 16.2 | 43.9 | 0.7 | 35.1 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-10-31 | 0 | 0 | 35.6 | 21.4 | 26 | 14.7 | 47.5 | 6.9 | 12.9 | moderado | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 24,423ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 25days
- 4 Oct 2020 – 28 Oct 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 4 Oct
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 1,528
- in a single hotspot: 0 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 888MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
4 Oct28 Oct
29 Oct 2020
How it evolved, day by day
4 Oct
9 Oct
19 Oct
26 Oct
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
38°high
42km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity
It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.9 mm on 31 Oct.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Lugela where it started25,141 ha4.1 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Built-up area14 ha
Residents≈ 3,800
Inside the perimeter there were about 14 hectares of built-up land and about 3,800 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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 Oct | 36.5 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 5 Oct | 32.0 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 6 Oct | 28.6 °C | 47 % | 31 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 24 |
| 7 Oct | 29.9 °C | 39 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 8 Oct | 30.0 °C | 42 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 9 Oct | 32.9 °C | 36 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 10 Oct | 38.4 °C | 29 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 11 Oct | 36.3 °C | 36 % | 34 km/h | 5.8 mm | Low 11 |
| 12 Oct | 29.1 °C | 58 % | 35 km/h | 3.9 mm | Very low 4 |
| 13 Oct | 27.0 °C | 60 % | 25 km/h | 0.5 mm | Low 7 |
| 14 Oct | 28.4 °C | 45 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 15 Oct | 28.8 °C | 42 % | 36 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 16 Oct | 33.1 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 17 Oct | 32.4 °C | 36 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 25 |
| 18 Oct | 33.1 °C | 29 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 19 Oct | 35.1 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 20 Oct | 35.6 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 21 Oct | 37.8 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 22 Oct | 34.1 °C | 28 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 23 Oct | 33.4 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Oct | 34.2 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 25 Oct | 34.3 °C | 32 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Oct | 35.3 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 27 Oct | 34.2 °C | 34 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 28 Oct | 35.5 °C | 29 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 29 Oct after | 36.4 °C | 26 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 30 Oct after | 36.0 °C | 28 % | 44 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 35 |
| 31 Oct after | 35.6 °C | 26 % | 48 km/h | 6.9 mm | Moderate 13 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 36.9, a minimum humidity of 31% and 10 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 44.
FWI at the start
36.9
Minimum humidity
31 %
Days without rain
10
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Lugela fire, 4 October 2020
24,423 ha
25 days
FWI 36.9
Min. humidity 31 %
Mocuba fire, September 2022
4,199 ha
22 days
FWI 38.2
Min. humidity 30 %
57 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Mocuba fire, September 2018
3,141 ha
14 days
FWI 35.4
Min. humidity 32 %
93 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.5 mm on 30 Sept.
Derre fire, September 2019
3,930 ha
13 days
FWI 35.4
Min. humidity 33 %
67 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 8.2 mm on 25 Sept.
Derre fire, September 2019
3,712 ha
7 days
FWI 35.1
Min. humidity 33 %
80 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Mocuba fire, September 2018
3,197 ha
6 days
FWI 33.3
Min. humidity 31 %
80 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.8 mm on 10 Sept.
What happened to them
- 14 days
- median duration
- 3,895 ha
- median area
- 7 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- 3.0 mm
- rain at the end (median; 35 of 44 had it)
It was 6.3 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 25 days, against 14 days.
Only 2 of its 44 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 9 of 44, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.0 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
6.9 mmfirst rain
31 Oct3 days after it ended
42km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 28 Oct, and on 31 Oct 6.9 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 35 of 44, with a median of 3.0 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 27 Sept 2020
After · 4 Nov 2020
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 0Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lugela fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 October 2020 and 28 October 2020: 25 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 24,423 hectares (244.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Lugela (25,141 ha, 4.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.4 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 44. Their median duration was 14 days and their median area 3,895 ha; 7 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 2 of its 44 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 9 of 44, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.0 mm.
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
History of this page · 5 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Area: 25,003 → 24,423 ha.
- Last day with fire: 30 October 2020 → 28 October 2020.
- Start date: 27 September 2020 → 4 October 2020.
- Last day with fire: 28 October 2020 → 30 October 2020.
- Start date: 4 October 2020 → 27 September 2020.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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.
Report an error
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.