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Machinga fire, 25 September 2017 Zomba, Machinga

Out · last detection 5 Oct 2017, 10:47 UTC

The fire started on 25 September 2017 in Machinga, Malawi, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,804 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 15th largest in Southern Region since 2016 (of 104 with a page). Number 16 in Malawi in 2017, of 62.

Burnt area
2,804ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
25 Sept 2017 – 5 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
25 Sept
2017
Heat detections
99
in a single hotspot: 59 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Sept5 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

252627293012345

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
55km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

32% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 886 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Zomba
    1,434 ha reached on 26 Sept
    0.5 %
  2. Machinga where it started
    1,387 ha reached on 25 Sept
    0.4 %

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)
25 Sept 29.0 °C 39 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
26 Sept 33.0 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Sept 32.2 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Sept 32.5 °C 26 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Sept 28.1 °C 44 % 39 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
30 Sept 28.9 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
1 Oct 28.4 °C 44 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
2 Oct 29.2 °C 46 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
3 Oct 29.5 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Oct 30.1 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Oct 31.6 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Oct after 32.0 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Oct after 30.8 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Oct after 31.6 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Oct after 32.3 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Oct after 33.1 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Oct after 35.0 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Oct after 31.2 °C 49 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Oct after 30.1 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Oct after 28.1 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Oct after 29.7 °C 28 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Sept 2017
After · 12 Oct 2017

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 · 99Every 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 Malawi ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Machinga fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 September 2017 and 5 October 2017: 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 2,804 hectares (28.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Zomba (1,434 ha, 0.5 %); Machinga (1,387 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Malawi (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.