Burned area
satellite only3,005ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 7 Sept 2017 – 16 Sept 2017
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
MZ · Mozambique · –
Macossa fire, 7 September 2017 Bárue, Macossa
Out · last detection 16 Sept 2017, 11:43 UTC
The fire started on 7 September 2017 in Macossa, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,005 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 118th largest in Manica since 2016 (of 118 with a page). Number 195 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.
Use this data
Compare with…
Suggestions: Bárue · 2016Bárue · 2021Macossa · 2026Bárue · 2022
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-26matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only10days
7 Sept 2017 to 16 Sept 2017: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 16 Sept 2017, 11:43 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only7 Sept 2017
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 7 Sept 2017
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only67
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 87 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 7 Sept 2017 – 16 Sept 2017
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only745MW
Total radiative power on 12 September 2017; hotspots that day: 20.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 12 Sept 2017
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model28.7FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 9.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 7 Sept 2017, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model33.1°C · 23% RH
High of 33.1 °C and minimum humidity of 23% on 14 September 2017; gusts of 32 km/h on 15 September 2017.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 7 Sept 2017 – 16 Sept 2017
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logStart date: 10 September 2017 → 7 September 2017.
What was saved on 26 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 3,005 ha
- Dates
- 7 Sept 2017 – 16 Sept 2017
- Name
- Bárue
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/macossa-2017-09-3?v=2026-10-26A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire macossa-2017-09-3.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-09-07 | 3 | 17 | 30.2 | 15.7 | 32 | 9.7 | 22.7 | 0 | 28.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2017-09-08 | 0 | 0 | 31.4 | 18.6 | 28 | 9.8 | 23.8 | 0 | 35.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2017-09-09 | 1 | 13 | 29.3 | 14.3 | 30 | 9.2 | 20.9 | 0 | 33 | alto | 1 |
| 2017-09-10 | 2 | 13 | 30.1 | 14.6 | 38 | 8.7 | 22.7 | 0 | 32.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2017-09-11 | 7 | 216 | 30.1 | 16.9 | 29 | 9.2 | 23.8 | 0 | 34 | alto | 1 |
| 2017-09-12 | 20 | 745 | 30.8 | 16.5 | 26 | 9.3 | 24.1 | 0 | 35.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2017-09-13 | 26 | 480 | 31.7 | 16.1 | 25 | 9.2 | 22 | 0 | 35.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2017-09-14 | 6 | 72 | 33.1 | 15 | 23 | 9.3 | 25.6 | 0 | 39.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2017-09-15 | 1 | 8 | 29.4 | 15.3 | 30 | 14.7 | 32.4 | 0 | 45.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2017-09-16 | 1 | 11 | 31.1 | 14.8 | 29 | 9.2 | 23.4 | 0 | 37.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2017-09-17 | 0 | 0 | 34.2 | 14.5 | 24 | 13.5 | 27.7 | 0 | 42.4 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2017-09-18 | 0 | 0 | 29.3 | 18.4 | 40 | 11.4 | 24.8 | 0 | 33.1 | alto | 0 |
| 2017-09-19 | 0 | 0 | 28.4 | 17.9 | 46 | 9.5 | 25.2 | 0 | 29.2 | alto | 0 |
| 2017-09-20 | 0 | 0 | 27.7 | 17.2 | 50 | 13.9 | 30.6 | 0 | 30 | alto | 0 |
| 2017-09-21 | 0 | 0 | 27.9 | 17.7 | 42 | 16.2 | 35.6 | 0.2 | 32.5 | alto | 0 |
| 2017-09-22 | 0 | 0 | 29.6 | 17.9 | 40 | 11.5 | 29.5 | 0 | 31.5 | alto | 0 |
| 2017-09-23 | 0 | 0 | 34.6 | 15.6 | 21 | 16.9 | 35.6 | 0 | 36.6 | alto | 0 |
| 2017-09-24 | 0 | 0 | 26.2 | 17.5 | 50 | 20.2 | 40.3 | 0.4 | 37.9 | alto | 0 |
| 2017-09-25 | 0 | 0 | 30.2 | 17.6 | 40 | 7.4 | 18.7 | 0 | 25.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2017-09-26 | 0 | 0 | 36.2 | 18 | 24 | 13.4 | 33.8 | 0 | 49.1 | muy_alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 3,005ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 7 Sept 2017 – 16 Sept 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 7 Sept
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 67
- in a single hotspot: 87 MW
- Danger at start
- 29
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 175MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
7 Sept16 Sept
16 Sept 2017
How it evolved, day by day
7 Sept
10 Sept
12 Sept
14 Sept
16 Sept
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
32km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity
It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
22% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 651 ha in 2016.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
2,539 ha0.4 %
-
Macossa where it started487 ha0.0 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Sept | 30.2 °C | 32 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 8 Sept | 31.4 °C | 28 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 9 Sept | 29.3 °C | 30 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 10 Sept | 30.1 °C | 38 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 11 Sept | 30.1 °C | 29 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 12 Sept | 30.8 °C | 26 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Sept | 31.7 °C | 25 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 14 Sept | 33.1 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 15 Sept | 29.4 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 16 Sept | 31.1 °C | 29 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 17 Sept after | 34.2 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 18 Sept after | 29.3 °C | 40 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 19 Sept after | 28.4 °C | 46 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 20 Sept after | 27.7 °C | 50 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 21 Sept after | 27.9 °C | 42 % | 36 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 32 |
| 22 Sept after | 29.6 °C | 40 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 23 Sept after | 34.6 °C | 21 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 24 Sept after | 26.2 °C | 50 % | 40 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 38 |
| 25 Sept after | 30.2 °C | 40 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 26 Sept after | 36.2 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 28.7, a minimum humidity of 32% and 9 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 22.
FWI at the start
28.7
Minimum humidity
32 %
Days without rain
9
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Macossa fire, 7 September 2017
3,005 ha
10 days
FWI 28.7
Min. humidity 32 %
Bárue fire, September 2016
3,228 ha
21 days
FWI 27.9
Min. humidity 32 %
41 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 13.0 mm on 3 Oct.
Bárue fire, September 2021
5,150 ha
13 days
FWI 27.2
Min. humidity 33 %
8 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.5 mm on 11 Oct.
Sussundenga fire, October 2017
7,567 ha
19 days
FWI 29.8
Min. humidity 32 %
163 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 20.8 mm on 27 Oct.
Gorongosa fire, October 2017
3,051 ha
17 days
FWI 29.3
Min. humidity 30 %
65 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.9 mm on 27 Oct.
Bárue fire, September 2016
3,084 ha
11 days
FWI 26.9
Min. humidity 34 %
33 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.4 mm on 2 Oct.
What happened to them
- 13 days
- median duration
- 3,221 ha
- median area
- 0 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- 1.9 mm
- rain at the end (median; 16 of 22 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (3,005 ha against a median of 3,221 ha) and lasted 10 days, against 13 days.
In 6 of 22, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.9 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
32km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 16 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 16 of 22, with a median of 1.9 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 31 Aug 2017
After · 23 Sept 2017
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 67Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 14,497 haMacossa21 August 2026 · 15 days · 5 km away
- 13,630 haBárue9 September 2022 · 23 days · 9 km away
- 25,118 haBárue5 September 2016 · 18 days · 18 km away
- 13,064 haBárue11 September 2026 · 18 days · 18 km away
- 28,718 haMacossa22 August 2025 · 39 days · 26 km away
- 27,378 haMacossa1 September 2023 · 25 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Macossa fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 7 September 2017 to 16 September 2017 (10 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 September 2017 to 16 September 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,005 hectares (30.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bárue (2,539 ha, 0.4 %); Macossa (487 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 22. Their median duration was 13 days and their median area 3,221 ha; 0 % went past 10,000 ha. In 6 of 22, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.9 mm.
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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Start date: 10 September 2017 → 7 September 2017.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 10 September 2017 to 16 September 2017. 67 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.
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.