Skip to content
worldfires
MZ · Mozambique · →

Malema fire, 11 September 2016 Malema

Out · last detection 17 Sept 2016, 23:17 UTC

The fire started on 11 September 2016 in Malema, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,590 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 159th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 393 with a page). Number 87 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

The power measured by the satellite is low (28.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
4,590ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
11 Sept 2016 – 17 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
11 Sept
2016
Heat detections
184
in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Sept17 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

11121314151617

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
35km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Malema where it started
    4,617 ha reached on 9 Sept
    0.8 %

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)
11 Sept 32.2 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
12 Sept 31.1 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Sept 31.3 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Sept 32.0 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Sept 31.0 °C 31 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Sept 31.4 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Sept 32.2 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 Sept after 31.2 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Sept after 29.8 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Sept after 27.8 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Sept after 30.1 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 Sept after 30.6 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Sept after 31.6 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Sept after 32.1 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Sept after 34.1 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Sept after 31.8 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Sept after 30.9 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Sept 2016
After · 24 Sept 2016

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 · 184Every 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 Malema fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 September 2016 and 17 September 2016: 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 4,590 hectares (45.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Malema (4,617 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.