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Malema fire, 4 August 2020 Malema

Out · last detection 11 Aug 2020, 10:28 UTC

The fire started on 4 August 2020 in Malema, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,221 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 337th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 170 in Mozambique in 2020, of 193.

Burnt area
3,221ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
4 Aug 2020 – 10 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
4 Aug
2020
Heat detections
104
in a single hotspot: 121 MW
Danger at start
23
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Aug 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Aug10 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

456791011

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
48km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

13% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 245 ha in 2016, 165 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Malema where it started
    3,240 ha reached on 4 Aug
    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)
4 Aug 26.7 °C 37 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
5 Aug 28.9 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Aug 29.1 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Aug 29.4 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Aug 24.3 °C 45 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Aug 23.8 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
10 Aug 25.9 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
11 Aug after 25.9 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Aug after 24.9 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Aug after 26.2 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Aug after 25.4 °C 40 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Aug after 26.1 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Aug after 29.3 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Aug after 27.9 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Aug after 28.6 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Aug after 29.5 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Aug after 27.9 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Jul 2020
After · 17 Aug 2020

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 · 104Every 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 4 August 2020 and 10 August 2020: 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 3,221 hectares (32.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Malema (3,240 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.4 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.