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Malema fire, 19 August 2018 Malema

Out · last detection 26 Aug 2018, 10:53 UTC

The fire started on 19 August 2018 in Malema, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,382 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 301th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 162 in Mozambique in 2018, of 220.

Burnt area
3,382ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
19 Aug 2018 – 26 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
19 Aug
2018
Heat detections
95
in a single hotspot: 65 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Aug 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Aug26 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

192022232426

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
39km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,114 ha in 2016, 1,180 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,649 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Malema where it started
    3,401 ha reached on 18 Aug
    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 Aug 27.1 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Aug 28.9 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Aug 28.5 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Aug 28.7 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Aug 28.7 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Aug 28.6 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Aug 29.2 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Aug 29.6 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Aug after 29.7 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Aug after 29.9 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Aug after 25.9 °C 48 % 49 km/h 0.6 mm High 31
30 Aug after 26.4 °C 45 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
31 Aug after 28.4 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Sept after 27.8 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
2 Sept after 30.3 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Sept after 31.2 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Sept after 29.1 °C 42 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Sept after 30.9 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.5 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Aug 2018
After · 2 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 · 95Every 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 19 August 2018 and 26 August 2018: 8 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 3,382 hectares (33.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Malema (3,401 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.6 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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.