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Mapai fire, 12 August 2022 Mapai

Out · last detection 18 Aug 2022, 23:01 UTC

The fire started on 12 August 2022 in Mapai, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,478 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 19th largest in Gaza since 2016 (of 78 with a page). Number 71 in Mozambique in 2022, of 206.

Burnt area
5,478ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
12 Aug 2022 – 18 Aug 2022
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
12 Aug
2022
Heat detections
163
in a single hotspot: 170 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Aug 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Aug18 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

121314151718

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
49km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

10% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 568 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Mapai where it started
    5,513 ha reached on 12 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)
12 Aug 31.3 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Aug 34.0 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Aug 37.9 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
15 Aug 27.7 °C 26 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
16 Aug 26.9 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Aug 31.5 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Aug 37.6 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Aug after 27.5 °C 42 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Aug after 28.9 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Aug after 25.0 °C 37 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Aug after 25.8 °C 30 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Aug after 26.0 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Aug after 27.4 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Aug after 29.5 °C 29 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Aug after 32.6 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Aug after 33.3 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Aug after 32.2 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Aug 2022
After · 25 Aug 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 · 163Every 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 Mapai fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 August 2022 and 18 August 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 5,478 hectares (54.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mapai (5,513 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, class Extreme.
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.