Mapai fire, 12 September 2024 Mapai, Chigubo, Mabalane
The fire started on 12 September 2024 in Mapai, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,585 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 18th largest in Gaza since 2016 (of 78 with a page). Number 49 in Mozambique in 2024, of 150.
- Burnt area
- 5,585ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 12 Sept 2024 – 17 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 12 Sept
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 281
- in a single hotspot: 79 MW
- Danger at start
- 33
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.2GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 21 Sept.
This area had burned before
54% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 191 ha in 2019, 168 ha in 2021, 2,670 ha in 2022.
What happened to each town
-
Mapai where it started4,909 ha reached on 11 Sept0.4 %
-
615 ha reached on 14 Sept0.1 %
-
97 ha reached on 13 Sept0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Sept | 33.1 °C | 38 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 13 Sept | 35.8 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 14 Sept | 37.7 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Sept | 34.4 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 16 Sept | 34.7 °C | 37 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 17 Sept | 35.2 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 18 Sept after | 36.6 °C | 25 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 19 Sept after | 37.2 °C | 31 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 20 Sept after | 23.2 °C | 59 % | 57 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 34 |
| 21 Sept after | 20.8 °C | 75 % | 56 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 15 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 19 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 41 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 23: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 281Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,369 haChigubo1 October 2018 · 9 days · 17 km away
- 5,309 haChigubo9 October 2024 · 6 days · 19 km away
- 13,795 haChigubo18 September 2021 · 6 days · 24 km away
- 6,098 haMabalaneNovember 2021 · 5 days · 26 km away
- 9,909 haChigubo19 September 2018 · 21 days · 33 km away
- 9,110 haMapai27 November 2023 · 6 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mapai fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 September 2024 and 17 September 2024: 6 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 5,585 hectares (55.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Mapai (4,909 ha, 0.4 %); Chigubo (615 ha, 0.1 %); Mabalane (97 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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
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.