Macate fire, August 2024 Macate, Gondola
The fire started on 8 August 2024 in Macate, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,386 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 23th largest in Manica since 2016 (of 198 with a page). Number 22 in Mozambique in 2024, of 150.
- Burnt area
- 9,386ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 8 Aug 2024 – 14 Aug 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 8 Aug
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 373
- in a single hotspot: 67 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.4GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.5 mm on 23 Aug.
This area had burned before
67% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 936 ha in 2016, 4,315 ha in 2017, 1,338 ha in 2018, 921 ha in 2020, 52 ha in 2021, 651 ha in 2022, 1,228 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,315 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Macate where it started9,312 ha reached on 3 Aug5.2 %
-
130 ha reached on 10 Aug0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Aug | 30.7 °C | 31 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 4 Aug | 30.9 °C | 32 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 5 Aug | 34.5 °C | 26 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 6 Aug | 28.0 °C | 49 % | 28 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 26 |
| 7 Aug | 27.8 °C | 54 % | 25 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 8 Aug | 29.4 °C | 45 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 9 Aug | 32.8 °C | 33 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 10 Aug | 34.2 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 11 Aug | 34.2 °C | 20 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 12 Aug | 34.6 °C | 20 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 13 Aug | 29.4 °C | 45 % | 19 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 14 Aug | 35.0 °C | 26 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 15 Aug after | 30.4 °C | 42 % | 37 km/h | 1.2 mm | High 22 |
| 16 Aug after | 28.7 °C | 43 % | 24 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 17 Aug after | 28.7 °C | 34 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 18 Aug after | 29.2 °C | 37 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 19 Aug after | 28.7 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 20 Aug after | 29.2 °C | 39 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 21 Aug after | 29.0 °C | 33 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 22 Aug after | 30.4 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 23 Aug after | 23.1 °C | 58 % | 28 km/h | 3.5 mm | Low 6 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 7 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 58 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 38: 2.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 373Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Macate fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 August 2024 and 14 August 2024: 7 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 9,386 hectares (93.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Macate (9,312 ha, 5.2 %); Gondola (130 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.
Report an error
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.