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Magoé fire, October 2019 Magoé

Out · last detection 11 Nov 2019, 11:06 UTC

The fire started on 26 October 2019 in Magoé, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,477 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 31th largest in Tete since 2016 (of 115 with a page). Number 59 in Mozambique in 2019, of 212.

Burnt area
5,477ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
26 Oct 2019 – 11 Nov 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
26 Oct
2019
Heat detections
204
in a single hotspot: 246 MW
Danger at start
57
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Nov 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Oct11 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

2627282930311234567891011

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

The weather it burned in

43°high
58km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.9 mm on 16 Nov.

This area had burned before

57% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,958 ha in 2017, 503 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,097 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Magoé where it started
    5,503 ha reached on 26 Oct
    0.6 %

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)
26 Oct 41.1 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
27 Oct 41.6 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Oct 42.5 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 Oct 43.0 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
30 Oct 39.7 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
31 Oct 38.6 °C 18 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
1 Nov 36.8 °C 28 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
2 Nov 34.9 °C 29 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
3 Nov 37.7 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Nov 38.1 °C 24 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
5 Nov 35.3 °C 27 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
6 Nov 36.0 °C 27 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
7 Nov 38.4 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Nov 40.8 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Nov 40.2 °C 22 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
10 Nov 36.2 °C 34 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Nov 38.5 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Nov after 37.7 °C 29 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Nov after 35.0 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Nov after 39.4 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 41
15 Nov after 37.3 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Nov after 38.1 °C 34 % 31 km/h 9.9 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Oct 2019
After · 18 Nov 2019

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 · 204Every 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 Magoé fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 October 2019 and 11 November 2019: 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 5,477 hectares (54.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Magoé (5,503 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 43.0 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 71, class Very 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.