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Mabalane fire, 8 September 2022 Mabalane, Mapai

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2022, 11:48 UTC

The fire started on 8 September 2022 in Mabalane, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,997 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in Gaza since 2016 (of 78 with a page). Number 51 in Mozambique in 2022, of 206.

Burnt area
6,997ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
8 Sept 2022 – 18 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
8 Sept
2022
Heat detections
243
in a single hotspot: 54 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Sept 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Sept18 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

8910111213141516171819

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
51km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 37 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 21 Sept.

This area had burned before

4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 308 ha in 2021.

What happened to each town

  1. Mabalane where it started
    3,780 ha reached on 8 Sept
    0.4 %
  2. Mapai
    3,242 ha reached on 13 Sept
    0.3 %

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 29.0 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Sept 32.7 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Sept 34.5 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Sept 35.8 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Sept 32.9 °C 32 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Sept 28.9 °C 42 % 44 km/h 1.5 mm High 24
14 Sept 27.9 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Sept 29.9 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Sept 34.1 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
17 Sept 35.7 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Sept 36.2 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Sept after 36.8 °C 24 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Sept after 32.2 °C 48 % 57 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 48
21 Sept after 22.2 °C 76 % 42 km/h 2.0 mm Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Sept 2022
After · 25 Sept 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.

Detections table · 243Every 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 Mabalane fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 September 2022 and 18 September 2022: 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 6,997 hectares (70.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mabalane (3,780 ha, 0.4 %); Mapai (3,242 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, class Extreme.
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.