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MZ · Mozambique · →

Majune fire, 20 September 2018 Majune

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2018, 23:17 UTC

The fire started on 20 September 2018 in Majune, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,276 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 205th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 577 with a page). Number 70 in Mozambique in 2018, of 220.

Burnt area
5,276ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
20 Sept 2018 – 23 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
20 Sept
2018
Heat detections
132
in a single hotspot: 151 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Sept23 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

20212223

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
40km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

31% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,437 ha in 2016, 767 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,655 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Majune where it started
    5,301 ha reached on 19 Sept
    0.5 %

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)
20 Sept 31.7 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Sept 33.5 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Sept 31.8 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Sept 30.6 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Sept after 30.4 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Sept after 31.0 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Sept after 33.5 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Sept after 31.4 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Sept after 32.5 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Sept after 32.2 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Sept after 32.0 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Oct after 29.2 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
2 Oct after 30.6 °C 41 % 33 km/h 0.4 mm High 29
3 Oct after 31.2 °C 43 % 32 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 · 13 Sept 2018
After · 30 Sept 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 · 132Every 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 20 September 2018 and 23 September 2018: 4 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 5,276 hectares (52.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Majune (5,301 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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.