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MZ · Mozambique · →

Majune fire, 19 September 2018 Majune

Out · last detection 26 Sept 2018, 11:13 UTC

The fire started on 19 September 2018 in Majune, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,429 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 133th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 577 with a page). Number 48 in Mozambique in 2018, of 220.

Burnt area
6,429ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
19 Sept 2018 – 25 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
19 Sept
2018
Heat detections
179
in a single hotspot: 71 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Sept25 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1920212223242526

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
49km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

11% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 719 ha in 2016, 3 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Majune where it started
    6,477 ha reached on 17 Sept
    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)
19 Sept 30.3 °C 31 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Sept 31.8 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Sept 32.5 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Sept 31.3 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Sept 30.5 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Sept 31.0 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Sept 29.8 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Sept after 32.8 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Sept after 31.2 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Sept after 32.1 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Sept after 31.7 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Sept after 30.5 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Oct after 28.6 °C 40 % 41 km/h 0.3 mm High 35
2 Oct after 29.5 °C 43 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Oct after 30.4 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Oct after 31.2 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
5 Oct after 29.1 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Sept 2018
After · 2 Oct 2018

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 · 179Every 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 Majune fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 September 2018 and 25 September 2018: 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 6,429 hectares (64.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Majune (6,477 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.5 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.