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Macossa fire, 21 September 2017 Bárue, Macossa

Out · last detection 8 Oct 2017, 22:41 UTC

The fire started on 21 September 2017 in Macossa, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,708 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 26th largest in Manica since 2016 (of 198 with a page). Number 29 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
8,708ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
21 Sept 2017 – 7 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
21 Sept
2017
Heat detections
400
in a single hotspot: 109 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Sept7 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

212223252627283012345678

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
48km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,188 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Bárue
    5,976 ha reached on 16 Sept
    1.0 %
  2. Macossa where it started
    2,783 ha reached on 14 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)
21 Sept 28.4 °C 39 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
22 Sept 29.5 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 Sept 34.3 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Sept 25.8 °C 51 % 41 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
25 Sept 30.1 °C 39 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
26 Sept 35.7 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
27 Sept 31.7 °C 43 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Sept 29.4 °C 43 % 44 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 21
29 Sept 26.2 °C 52 % 40 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 12
30 Sept 29.5 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
1 Oct 29.2 °C 37 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
2 Oct 30.5 °C 32 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
3 Oct 31.0 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Oct 32.2 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Oct 34.0 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
6 Oct 32.7 °C 31 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Oct 30.7 °C 39 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 Oct after 35.1 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Oct after 32.9 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
10 Oct after 36.4 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 39
11 Oct after 30.4 °C 46 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Oct after 30.8 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Oct after 29.1 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
14 Oct after 25.9 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.7 mm High 24
15 Oct after 32.6 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Oct after 38.8 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Oct after 41.7 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Sept 2017
After · 14 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 · 400Every 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 Macossa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 September 2017 and 7 October 2017: 17 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 8,708 hectares (87.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bárue (5,976 ha, 1.0 %); Macossa (2,783 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.

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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.