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Lugela fire, September 2022 Lugela, Namarrói, Molumbo

Out · last detection 6 Nov 2022, 11:50 UTC

The fire started on 19 September 2022 in Lugela, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 48 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 173,378 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 4th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 840 with a page). The largest in Mozambique in 2022, of 206.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Lugela · 2020Namarrói · 2016Milange · 2016Namarrói · 2017

Burnt area
173,378ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
48days
19 Sept 2022 – 5 Nov 2022
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
19 Sept
2022
Heat detections
12,633
in a single hotspot: 134 MW
Danger at start
23
High · FWI index
Average daily power
2.6GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Sept5 Nov
6 Nov 2022

How it evolved, day by day

19 Sept 2022 · 48 MW · 7 20 Sept 2022 · 556 MW · 64 21 Sept 2022 · 771 MW · 93 22 Sept 2022 · 340 MW · 48 23 Sept 2022 · 619 MW · 86 24 Sept 2022 · 288 MW · 29 25 Sept 2022 · 326 MW · 44 26 Sept 2022 · 3 MW · 3 27 Sept 2022 · 207 MW · 37 28 Sept 2022 · 805 MW · 97 29 Sept 2022 · 916 MW · 99 30 Sept 2022 · 737 MW · 95 1 Oct 2022 · 2,897 MW · 275 2 Oct 2022 · 3,562 MW · 277 3 Oct 2022 · 2,648 MW · 249 4 Oct 2022 · 2,102 MW · 267 5 Oct 2022 · 7,051 MW · 774 6 Oct 2022 · 5,903 MW · 638 7 Oct 2022 · 6,278 MW · 604 8 Oct 2022 · 3,449 MW · 302 9 Oct 2022 · 3,669 MW · 332 10 Oct 2022 · 8,250 MW · 791 11 Oct 2022 · 7,069 MW · 608 12 Oct 2022 · 4,522 MW · 424 13 Oct 2022 · 4,075 MW · 325 14 Oct 2022 · 4,989 MW · 520 15 Oct 2022 · 6,792 MW · 660 16 Oct 2022 · 4,847 MW · 663 17 Oct 2022 · 6,198 MW · 535 18 Oct 2022 · 2,394 MW · 252 19 Oct 2022 · 3,432 MW · 274 20 Oct 2022 · 1,623 MW · 111 21 Oct 2022 · 1,004 MW · 182 22 Oct 2022 · 5,106 MW · 531 23 Oct 2022 · 3,756 MW · 403 24 Oct 2022 · 4,659 MW · 382 25 Oct 2022 · 2,249 MW · 277 26 Oct 2022 · 3,491 MW · 339 27 Oct 2022 · 4,273 MW · 475 28 Oct 2022 · 2,050 MW · 230 29 Oct 2022 · 226 MW · 24 30 Oct 2022 · 480 MW · 48 31 Oct 2022 · 405 MW · 32 1 Nov 2022 · 812 MW · 58 2 Nov 2022 · 522 MW · 42 3 Nov 2022 · 136 MW · 19 5 Nov 2022 · 61 MW · 7 6 Nov 2022 · 8 MW · 1
19 Sept 26 Sept 3 Oct 10 Oct 17 Oct 24 Oct 31 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

36°high
44km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 10 Nov.

This area had burned before

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 101,503 ha in 2016, 89,727 ha in 2017, 59,514 ha in 2018, 69,965 ha in 2019, 98,340 ha in 2020, 66,384 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 157,504 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

20 km
It burned almost the same area as London (1,734 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Lugela where it started
    148,722 ha reached on 19 Sept
    24 %
  2. Namarrói
    24,864 ha reached on 19 Sept
    8.1 %
  3. Molumbo
    668 ha reached on 20 Sept
    0.2 %

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 2020
Built-up area106 ha
Residents≈ 34,000

Inside the perimeter there were about 106 hectares of built-up land and about 34,000 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)
19 Sept 31.3 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
20 Sept 32.2 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
21 Sept 30.5 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
22 Sept 30.7 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
23 Sept 31.3 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
24 Sept 30.4 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
25 Sept 30.6 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
26 Sept 31.2 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
27 Sept 31.9 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
28 Sept 29.6 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
29 Sept 29.1 °C 39 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
30 Sept 30.8 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
1 Oct 31.1 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
2 Oct 31.8 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Oct 32.3 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
4 Oct 34.1 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Oct 33.6 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
6 Oct 33.5 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Oct 33.4 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Oct 32.0 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.3 mm High 38
9 Oct 31.9 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Oct 32.2 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Oct 31.0 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
12 Oct 31.2 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Oct 32.5 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Oct 33.7 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Oct 33.1 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Oct 32.6 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Oct 32.3 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Oct 30.9 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
19 Oct 29.7 °C 44 % 33 km/h 0.3 mm High 28
20 Oct 30.5 °C 41 % 29 km/h 2.7 mm Low 10
21 Oct 33.7 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Oct 33.8 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Oct 33.7 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Oct 34.3 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Oct 33.1 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Oct 34.9 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Oct 35.7 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Oct 35.4 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Oct 29.9 °C 50 % 31 km/h 5.1 mm Low 6
30 Oct 29.5 °C 46 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 13
31 Oct 33.7 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Nov 32.8 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm High 31
2 Nov 31.7 °C 37 % 37 km/h 1.3 mm High 22
3 Nov 30.9 °C 48 % 28 km/h 2.6 mm Low 8
4 Nov 31.4 °C 43 % 27 km/h 4.7 mm Very low 5
5 Nov 32.7 °C 43 % 30 km/h 2.7 mm Low 6
6 Nov after 32.6 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
7 Nov after 33.0 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
8 Nov after 33.5 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
9 Nov after 32.5 °C 40 % 41 km/h 0.6 mm High 23
10 Nov after 32.9 °C 41 % 31 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 15

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Sept 2022
After · 12 Nov 2022

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 6 October 2022 the air beside the fire reached 257 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 76: 5.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak257 µg/m³
Days over the guideline32 days
PM10367 µg/m³
Optical depth1.42
17181920212223242526272829301234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112345678
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 12,633Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 September 2022 to 5 November 2022 (48 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 September 2022 to 31 October 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 173,378 hectares (1,733.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Lugela (148,722 ha, 24 %); Namarrói (24,864 ha, 8.1 %); Molumbo (668 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 44 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.

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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 31 October 2022 → 5 November 2022.
  2. Start date: 25 September 2022 → 19 September 2022.

RSS Changes to this page

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 14 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 25 September 2022 to 31 October 2022. 12,633 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.