Skip to content
worldfires
MZ · Mozambique · →

Malema fire, October 2022 Malema, Gurué, Cuamba

Out · last detection 9 Oct 2022, 23:24 UTC

The fire started on 2 October 2022 in Malema, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,836 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 93th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 53 in Mozambique in 2022, of 206.

Burnt area
6,836ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
2 Oct 2022 – 8 Oct 2022
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
2 Oct
2022
Heat detections
356
in a single hotspot: 67 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Oct 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Oct8 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

23456789

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
42km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

62% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,474 ha in 2016, 1,459 ha in 2017, 1,403 ha in 2019, 2,590 ha in 2020, 563 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,205 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Malema where it started
    5,860 ha reached on 30 Sept
    1.0 %
  2. Gurué
    922 ha reached on 29 Sept
    0.2 %
  3. Cuamba
    98 ha reached on 1 Oct
    0.0 %

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)
2 Oct 29.5 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Oct 28.0 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Oct 29.3 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Oct 28.6 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Oct 29.5 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Oct 29.2 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
8 Oct 29.5 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Oct after 28.1 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Oct after 28.7 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Oct after 28.0 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Oct after 27.7 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Oct after 28.7 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Oct after 29.2 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Oct after 27.9 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Oct after 28.5 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Oct after 27.8 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Oct after 26.6 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.3 mm High 29

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Sept 2022
After · 15 Oct 2022

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 · 356Every 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 2 October 2022 and 8 October 2022: 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 6,836 hectares (68.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Malema (5,860 ha, 1.0 %); Gurué (922 ha, 0.2 %); Cuamba (98 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.5 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.